Fall Protection

D

David Saulque

Senior Moderator
Back in February 07 one of my managers had a serious fall from a single story fixed ladder. All the details and drama related to this event is unimportant. OSHA was called in and this created more drama to the event. But what this did was to make me take a good look at how my company and my industry look at fixed ladders. Simply put fall protection on fixed ladder less than 20 ft is not required and is a gray area. So what do we do? Well this is what I am going to do.

Imagine a cold night in January and you have to climb a fix ladder some 20 feet and the ladder is cold, icy and slippery. If you slip just once your world will turn upside down. We as an industry can’t prevent accidents but we can prevent injury. This can be done with a good harness & a “Y” lanyard along with a program and instructions on how to use the system.

The way that this system works is simple, the worker is always attached when he is going up or down. One side of the lanyard is always attached. It will take this employee an extra 30 seconds to be safe.

The key to the harness is to get one that is comfortable and easy to put on. The one that we picked out the worker will not even notice he has one on-thus limiting problems. The system is around $275 per harness.

We as a comp-any will be set up on January 12th and I plan to take some pictures of our OSHA 10 certification class. This program will save injury. I encourage all of you to take a look at your operation and adapt a similar program. Give me a call-this is very important for all of you
 
Thanks for sharing. It's extremely important to be safe. Many contractors are in a big hurry and would rather not waste the 30 seconds to prevent an accident to maximize there profit and with one mistake your done. You better hope you have insurance otherwise the profit you just made that year are going to medical bills.
 
Thanks David, Very good stuff. David is a book of info and he does invite the call.

David helped me with a drum problem, he showed me a drum system he had from a company. I looked at what David was using and found another product from the catalog he had taken the time to send me.

Thanks again David
 
Safety only adds a few minutes to any job, but can save you from a lifetime of pain. Great info on the harness Dave.
 
Good info, always best to be prepared. But, ALL accidents are avoidable. But we are human, humans make mistakes, thats when the avoidable accident is going to happen.
 
The type of harness we are getting is an EXOFIT made by Capital. When I get some links on Monday I will post. This is one area where cheap is not the way to go. You can get harness system for $50-not a good option. I will keep everyone informed.
 
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