Supervisors: This presentation contains 22 slides.
If you have, say, an hour to give it, you’ll need to change slides every 3 minutes or so in order to get through the presentation and have time for questions.
Eleven of the slides contain Real-Life Stories of injuries or fines due to mistakes involving misuse or non-use of fall protection. If you want to tell them, you’ll have to move more rapidly through some of the other slides.
Employees respond better when they understand not only what they’re supposed to do, but also when, how, and especially why. Throughout the supervisor’s notes accompanying this presentation, we’ll provide you with anecdotes taken from real experience to help answer those questions.
Feel free to pause the presentation at any time to go into these real-life stories and reinforce your point.
Different fall protection regulations apply to different industries such as construction, shipbuilding, manufacturing and so forth.
Some form of fall protection should be used whenever a worker is high enough off the nearest level surface that a fall would likely cause injury. According to OSHA standards, that’s six feet and higher.
Fall prevention includes devices like:
Guardrails on platforms, scaffolds or stairways
Work platforms on bucket trucks or aerial lifts
Fall arrest includes systems using harnesses, lanyards and tie-off points, or anchors. It also includes safety nets.
Which system you use depends on the work you’re doing. Sometimes the work will be hazardous enough, or far enough above ground, that redundant systems should be used, including both fall prevention and fall arrest.
Guardrails can be highly effective for keeping workers from falling off stationary or suspended platforms, as well as stairways and elevated walkways.
However, a guardrail – like any safety equipment – is only good when it’s used and maintained properly. The following true story relates how a guardrail was misused – with devastating results for the worker involved.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEBart – the name is a pseudonym – worked as a painter for Sundial Painting. The company had a contract to paint the underside of a roof at a construction site.
An electrical contractor also working on the site had leased a scissor lift that Bart was expected to use to do the paint job. The lift had a solid metal guardrail on three sides of its platform, but just a chainlink closure on the fourth side.
Bart got on the lift, closed the chain – or so he thought – and had the platform raised into working position. He was working away when he slipped over the side and fell 20 feet to the ground.
It turned out there were two big problems with the lift’s fall prevention system. First, the lift was designed to have solid metal guardrails all around. Somebody – Bart never found out who – had removed one and installed the chain in its place. Second, Bart apparently didn’t close the chain as he thought he had.
Whatever the case, Bart took the brunt. He fractured his skull, damaged his spinal cord, and ended up paralyzed from the waist down.
(ask the participants)
What did Bart do wrong?
Correct answer: Obviously, he should have taken greater care to close the chain. In this case, though, Bart wasn’t the only one at fault. The guardrail shouldn’t have been modified for easier entry and exit in a way that essentially destroyed its efficiency as a fall prevention system.
(Minter v. Prime Equipment Co., 10th Circuit Court of Appeals)
Although personal fall arrest equipment has saved many hundreds of lives on work sites, workers have to pay close attention to use it properly. This includes making sure that all three parts of the system are correctly installed, in good working order, and properly linked together.
ANY omission in these precautions can make the whole system break down, and fail to provide the expected protection.
And by the way, any harness or connector that has already arrested somebody’s fall should be discarded.
The anchor point must be structurally sound and capable of holding 5,000 pounds, which is two and a half tons.
If no good anchor point is available in the structure being worked on, permanent or reusable anchors can be attached to roof decks or beams.
In the following case, workers had installable anchors but didn’t use them properly. Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but the company got fined.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEJackie – we’ll call him that – was a foreman for a roofing company, Northwest Shake Tile. His crew was putting a roof on a house under construction when a safety compliance officer happened by. He climbed up one of the ladders and had a look around.
“What’s the deal with these anchors?” the compliance officer asked.
“You can see we’ve got ‘em on both ends of the ridge line and in the middle,” Jackie responded. “I make sure all the guys tie off when they’re up here.”
“That’s not what I mean,” the compliance officer said, bending over to look closer at the anchor. “You’ve got these anchors attached with ordinary nails, five to an anchor. That’s not going to hold a 200-pound guy in free fall.”
“Well, we tested them by attaching a sack of sand and dropping it off the roof,” Jackie said defensively.
“I don’t care,” the inspector said. “Five nails is enough to hold about 500 pounds, but a falling man can exert 2,000 pounds of force. That would rip these nails right out.”
The roofing company ended up getting fined $1,500 for the safety violation.
(ask the participants)
What did Jackie do wrong?
Correct answer: It wasn’t as though Jackie totally ignored fall protection. He made sure there was one anchor for each worker, that the anchors were installed, and that everybody tied off.
Where he went wrong was in failing to understand just how much force a fall can generate, and failing to attach the anchors so they could withstand such a fall.
(Oregon Occupational Safety & Health Div. v. Northwest Shake Tile, Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board)
The body harness straps around the chest, rear end and thighs.
It should be checked frequently for worn-out or overstretched straps and/or damaged buckles. Remember, the harness will do a worker no good if he or she slips out of it during a fall.
The following story illustrates the impact a badly fitting harness can have. In this case, the worker didn’t fall, but he lost his job.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEAgain we’re using a work name for our central figure. This time let’s call him Bert. He worked for Pioneer Building Supply Co.
Bert was on a work site when an inspector turned up and noticed his safety harness looked odd. “Baggy,” was how the inspector put it.
Not was the harness way too loose, the clasp that held the shoulder-to-waist straps together was cracked. The inspector feared Bert might slip out of the harness if he fell and the clasp broke in two.
Apprised of the inspector’s concerns, the company had a look at Bert’s harness. The safety supervisor immediately pointed out that this wasn’t company-issued equipment. Bert admitted he’d been using an old harness from a previous employer.
Rather than be suspended or fired for the safety violation, Bert decided to quit. The company wasn’t fined, but Bert was out of a job.
(ask the participants)
What did Bert do wrong?
Correct answer: Not all equipment is created equal. Bert failed to understand that fall protection isn’t just a matter of having some kind of equipment on, but the right equipment.
(In re: Pioneer Builders Supply Co., Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals)
The connecting device links the body harness to the anchor point, directly or indirectly by means of a lifeline. This device is usually known as a shock-absorbing or self-retracting lanyard. It’s typically made of nylon.
The use of other kinds of ropes in place of a lanyard can jerk an employee so hard in case of a fall that joints are dislocated.
The lanyard is required to have a snap hook that locks, so the hook doesn’t come loose from the anchor point in the event of a fall.
It’s surprising how many times workers get up on roofs or other high work areas with body harnesses on, but don’t connect them properly. What good does that do? Here’s a factual story about one such incident.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEAnthony – not his real name – was foreman of a three-man crew for a company called B.D. Construction. One day as Anthony and his crew were working on a roof, a state safety inspector showed up.
The crew were all wearing their body harnesses. So far, so good. But there was a problem. The harnesses weren’t connected to … anything! There were no anchors and no lanyards on the roof.
The inspector called the crew down. Anthony explained that the lanyards had been stolen. Maybe. But there was another problem. Although the company owner said the anchors his crews used were permanent, and thus would remain on a building after the roofing was done, the anchors for Anthony’s crew were still in his truck.
That didn’t look good, to say the least. Although the safety inspector happened along before anybody fell, the company was socked with an $1,800 fine.
(ask the participants)
What did Anthony do wrong?
Correct answer: Just about everything. Not only did he neglect to install the anchors, without lanyards his crew couldn’t have hooked up to anything safe anyway.
We’ll let you decide whether the lanyards were really stolen. Anthony was identified by the state safety agency as a repeat violator of safety regs.
(In re: B.D. Construction Inc., Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals)
Safety nets are practical mainly on larger jobs where work is taking place over an extended period of time. They’re generally more expensive and more time-consuming to rig than personal fall arrest systems.
Safety nets are supposed to be installed as close as possible to the level from which workers might fall, but never any more than 30 feet below. They must be capable of catching a 400-pound weight, and must extend anywhere from 8 to 13 feet beyond the edge of the level people could fall from.
Workers on a job where a safety net is in use need to be sure to alert supervisors when any tools or debris drops into the net. It must be removed before the next shift comes on. Workers should also be alert to report any damage or sagging of a safety net.
Sometimes a worker just won’t take the trouble to rig a harness, or tie off, or erect a guardrail, especially if the task is urgent or the danger doesn’t seem excessive. The worker may think the risk isn’t big enough to spend the time, or that he or she has handled similar situations in the past without slip-ups.
Needless to say, this is just when the danger of injury can be greatest.
Even if it’s only 10 feet to the ground, it can be a pretty long drop, especially if you land on a shoulder or back or head.
Workers intent on the job at hand can often get dangerously close to the edge of the elevated platform they’re working on without even realizing it. That’s what happened here.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEMerrill, as we’ll call him, worked for a company called Roof Engineering.
One day he was told to drive a load of air conditioning caps to a job site. These 5’ x 7’ caps were made of stainless steel. They were supposed to cover holes where air conditioning equipment had been removed from a building.
When Merrill arrived, the site supervisor told him to stick around and help get the caps up to the roof of the main building. They decided to ride a fork lift up to the roof of the loading dock, which was between ground level and roof level, with the caps. From there, other workers on the main roof would lower ropes, and the two men would tie the caps to these for the final lift.
The two men had their safety harnesses, but the trouble was, there was no place for the men to tie off on the loading dock roof. Normally, they should have waited for somebody to rig tie-off points for them, but Merrill’s truck was needed for other business and he had to be on his way.
So even though the loading dock roof was small, the two got up there and helped hoist the first cap. While they were hooking up the second one, though, Merrill stepped to the side to get out of its way, and stepped off the roof.
He fell 18 feet and broke his foot.
(ask the participants)
What did Merrill do wrong?
Correct answer: Merrill and his workmate should have waited for help. Whatever time they would have saved by doing the job without proper fall protection was lost when Merrill was injured.
Not to mention the workers’ compensation costs to the company. And because Merrill had gone up on another roof without tying off a few days earlier, he got a 10-day suspension without pay for the injury incident.
(Pope v. Roof Engineering, Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission)
Workers in partially completed buildings are at special risk for this kind of fall. They may inadvertently step on skylights that aren’t meant to bear a person’s weight, or come in contact with an opening that will be sealed up or covered later.
Fall protection for skylights and holes includes either a skylight screen or a fixed railing on all sides. Other forms of fall protection, including personal arrest systems, may be appropriate, too, depending on the situation.
Here’s an incident where a worker in a building under construction fell through a window that was supposed to have fall protection but didn’t.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEJoel, as we’ll call him, worked for Insul-Acoustics, a drywall subcontractor. He was busy one day applying finishing tape to drywall on a job when he stumbled and fell against a window.
To Joel’s horror, the window panel gave way, pitching him out into thin air on the other side of the wall. He fell more than 10 feet and was severely injured.
It turned out that the general contractor had installed temporary guard rails in front of the windows, but somebody removed the rail in front of the window Joel was working near.
When Joel fell, the windows were held in place temporarily by stoppers. Later on, another crew was to come by and fix the window panels in place permanently. But that was too late to help Joel.
(ask the participants)
What did Joel do wrong?
Correct answer: You might say Joel’s fall was entirely the fault of whoever removed the guardrail. But that would be letting him off easy. He should have noticed that the guardrail was gone – there were guardrails at other windows – and tried to find out why before going ahead with his work.
(Nesbitt v. Tutor-Saliba Corp., California Court of Appeal)
Ladders and stairways pose particular problems. A ladder can be unstable if it’s not properly supported. Feet can slip from a rung.
That’s why workers should always use the three-point climbing technique: Keep either two hands and one foot, or two feet and one hand, in contact with the ladder. If that means hauling equipment up with a winch or carrying it on your back, so be it.
And depending on the circumstances, fall protection may be necessary when climbing ladders far above the ground or working level.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEKarl worked for Jack Yates Drywall. On a certain job, he and co-workers were working on a scaffold, which they reached by means of an improvised ladder.
One day when Karl climbed up to work on the scaffold he noticed that he’d left some essential materials – expansion joints – behind. So he started to climb back down.
But as he went to grab a brace that the workers used as a hand support while on the ladder, the brace gave way and he fell about 25 feet. Karl sustained fractures to both his heels.
(ask the participants)
What did Karl do wrong?
Correct answer: Two things: He assumed that the brace, which had been added on to the scaffold as an afterthought, would hold his weight. And then he wasn’t wearing a fall arrest system, which would have been wise given the height above ground and the precarious nature of the improvised ladder.
(Garrett v. Jack Yates Drywall, Arkansas Division of Workers’ Compensation)
Scaffolding presents a prime risk of falls. A scaffold is inherently unstable, it’s usually high up in the air, and it’s an unnatural, cramped environment that can be difficult to move around in.
Plus, all too often scaffolds are installed or operated in the wrong way.
As a result, fall protection is extremely important for anyone working on or around a scaffold. Here’s a case that proves it.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEParker – the name we’ll give him – worked for Emclos Corp., a company that did ironwork on high-rise buildings.
During work on one job, Parker and his crewmates had to move a mobile scaffold from the top of a building to a position alongside the building. He was wearing a safety harness attached by a lanyard to a lifeline hanging from the top of the building.
It was a windy day, and the lifeline kept getting tangled in the cable supporting the scaffold. So Parker unhooked his lanyard from the lifeline and hooked it to a metal projection on the building. He untangled the lifeline, untied from the projection, and was getting into the scaffold when the scaffold shifted position.
As it did, its motor struck Parker in the face. Not attached to anything, he lost his balance and fell nearly 90 feet.
He was lucky. He wasn’t killed. But he suffered injuries to his head, shoulder, ribs and pelvis, and was out of work for three months.
(ask the participants)
What did Parker do wrong?
Correct answer: He shouldn’t have been untied at such a height. Parker said afterward that he couldn’t remain tied to the lifeline while untangling it, and he couldn’t reach the scaffold without untying from the metal projection.
But if he’d been carrying two lanyards, he could have tied off to another lifeline while untangling his. (Dasch v. Emclos Corp., Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission)
Any elevated, exposed surface poses a fall danger. But the danger expands exponentially when the surface is slippery, especially when it’s also pitched.
Slick conditions call for special care in the use of fall arrest systems. In the following true story, that didn’t happen, and a worker lost his life.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEWalt – not his real name – was working on a roofing job for a company called Danstar Builders.
It was early spring, and there had been a late snowstorm just a few days earlier. Walt was up on the crest of a 20-foot-high roof when his boots slipped on a patch of ice left over from the storm. He slid down the roof, gaining speed and scrabbling desperately for a handhold.
But he couldn’t grab on. Walt went over the edge of the roof and fell face down to the ground. He was killed instantly.
(ask the participants)
What did Walt do wrong?
Correct answer: Walt had been given slide guards to install on the roof first thing in the morning before starting work. He didn’t do so. And in the absence of any tie-off, nothing could hold him on the roof once he started to go.
(Danstar Builders v. Industrial Commission, Ohio Supreme Court)
Needless to say, if you’re tearing down the thing you’re standing on, you need fall protection! Or maybe it’s not needless to say, as the following accident story points out.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLEJimmy was heading up a crew demolishing a bridge.
His men would cut each concrete panel of the bridge deck partway through with a saw and then use a crane to pull up and apply tension to the panel. A jackhammer operator – sometimes Jimmy himself – would then break the concrete along the unsawn end of the panel and a torch operator would cut the exposed rebar. This would free the panel and allow the crane to swing it out.
The job had been going along fine for three days when the contractor fired the saw operator. The next day when Jimmy and his guys took lunch, the new saw operator continued working.
Wiping their mouths, Jimmy and the crew returned to pull off the latest panel. He walked out onto it and started up the jackhammer. But this time, everything went wrong. The panel collapsed onto a highway below, taking Jimmy and one of his men with it.
Both of them were seriously injured, and Jimmy’s workers’ compensation claim was denied. It turned out that the new saw operator had cut all the way through the panel rather than just partway through.
(ask the participants)
What did Jimmy do wrong?
Correct answer: As the workers’ compensation judge said, Jimmy should have known better than to walk on a piece of concrete that was being sawn off without a safety line. If he had been properly tied off, the new saw operator’s blunder wouldn’t have had such serious consequences.
(Schubart v. North Carolina Dept. of Transportation, North Carolina Industrial Commission)
Everybody knows people aren’t supposed to ride or climb on the forks of a forklift. Yet occasionally there may be a legitimate reason to do so.
If this ever happens in your workplace, the workers involved should definitely have their personal fall arrest systems rigged.
Here’s a story to illustrate what we mean.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLERoger was a laborer for a construction company known as Adolfson & Peterson. One a particular job, his crewmates were using a forklift to deliver materials to the second floor of a building under construction.
Roger’s job was to unload the materials, which were contained in a wooden box sitting on the forks. When he went to do this, however, the box tipped off the forks while he was partially inside it, sending him tumbling to the floor 14 feet below.
Roger was badly injured. What was more, although he was granted workers’ compensation, his payments were reduced by half because he should have known better.
(ask the participants)
What did Roger do wrong?
Correct answer: This was a clear case where Roger should have had a harness on, attached to an anchor point on the second floor. The forks of a forklift are an inherently unstable place, where a worker is begging to be injured if he or she isn’t protected.
(Alvarado v. Adolfson & Peterson Construction, Colorado Industrial Claim Appeals Office)
Once an employee’s fall has been arrested, the job of saving his or her life isn’t over. A person suspended for a long time by a harness can fall victim to what doctors call “orthostatic intolerance.” This means the kind of faint that you might have experienced when standing up rapidly after a long time sitting down.
Depending on how long the suspended worker is immobile and how much blood pools in his or her leg veins, orthostatic intolerance can lead to serious injury or even death, from the brain, kidneys and other organs being deprived of oxygen.
Fall protection, like many other safety precautions, requires wisdom, thought and patience.
Faced with pressures to get things done, co-workers who may not have the right safety attitudes, or plain old impatience, a worker may be tempted to skip or skimp on fall protection. One word: Don’t. Lives may hang in the balance.
