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So we had another harness save. My main roof guy was coming down from a roof and his ground man had just come down off the ladder on a 2 story house. When the ground man came off the ladder, he shifted it. As soon as my roof man stepped into the ladder, it went out from under him. He fell about 5 feet and was stopped up short by his fall arrest system attached to  the safety anchor they had just installed (my guys are trained to be harnessed until their feet are on the ground. He was able to lower himself down using the descender we invested in.

The next day he was sore and bruised up from the harness taking the impact, but it was FAR better than the alternative of hitting the concrete from 2 stories up. 

Guys...it is REALLY easy to become complacent. It is really easy to think you are never going to fall from a roof. But it was just last year that one of our fellow roof cleaners was killed on the job site. As great as this business is, never ever forget that it is a dangerous profession. A fall can seriously injure or kill you. Think about what that would do to your family and friends before you step up on that 2 story roof. Safety anchors are not that hard to install and safety equipment is not that expensive in light of what not having safety equipment *could* cost you. Operating safely and stressing it to your clients shows professionalism and sets you apart from the competition. 

Be safe out there.

Edited by PeakOfPerfection

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I am glad he had a harness on, and I would add the ground man should been holding the ladder. What kind of ladder stabilizer do you use? It seems pretty hard to cause a ladder to "shift" when getting off a ladder especially one set on concrete when using a stabilizer. 

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Good post Kevin, and GREAT safety program that you have in place.  To Clayton's point, we have a spotter on the ladder every time, period.  No exceptions.    And cougar paws.

Sadly, a guy near me had a fall a couple of weeks ago.  He got busted up a bit.  Fell two stories and landed on a pool apron.  He's lucky as he's expected to make a full recovery.  It could have easily killed him.

 

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Good post Kevin, and GREAT safety program that you have in place.  To Clayton's point, we have a spotter on the ladder every time, period.  No exceptions.    And cougar paws.

Sadly, a guy near me had a fall a couple of weeks ago.  He got busted up a bit.  Fell two stories and landed on a pool apron.  He's lucky as he's expected to make a full recovery.  It could have easily killed him.

 

My other guy was on the bottom of the ladder. What he did't realize was that the ladder was on a small slope and the stabilizer had shifted to a spot with a hole. Even with a LadderMax stabilizer, it moved and my top man was just stepping on. That is why he went down. Kind of a freak thing...but that is why it is called an accident. 

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My other guy was on the bottom of the ladder. What he did't realize was that the ladder was on a small slope and the stabilizer had shifted to a spot with a hole. Even with a LadderMax stabilizer, it moved and my top man was just stepping on. That is why he went down. Kind of a freak thing...but that is why it is called an accident. 

Sorry if I came across wrong - wasn't question your safety programs, just wanted to mention an added layer of safety for anyone that may read this thread. 

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Great post! For work at heights or in confined spaces, wearing a safety harness and other fall protection equipment can save your life, or at least greatly reduce the risk of injury. 

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I use ladder levelers on my ladders. Helps a lot with uneven ground. Fairly cheap too. Added peice of mind.

they had the levelers employed. But levelers won't help of the ladder shifts...sometimes even a few inches. That is what happened here. It shifted just enough to where it was unstable and whited sideways. Point is, if you are two stories up on the roof, there is no excuse for not being harnessed. If you wear that harness all the way down then your chances of injury are greatly lessened. Fall Safety can be a pain in the butt, it takes time. It takes effort and it takes expense. But the costs of a mistake are far too great to not operate safely. And besides which, the extra few thousand a months in revenue for anchor installations and the extra incentive pay the employees get for installing them really helps. My guys can have one properly installed in 10 minutes. 

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my guys are trained to be harnessed until their feet are on the ground.

This may be a noob question but safety is number one so, how do you stay hooked in till your feet are back on the ground, when your anchor point is at the peak of the roof? 

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For high pitch roofs, It requires a Descender and enough line (we use Petzl Descenders). If you are descending for the final time off the roof, loop the rope through the anchor ring, the carabiner will go to your harness hard point, the other end will go through a descender hooked into your lanyard. As you belay line through the descender and through the ring, you go down. When you reach the greound, unclip from the descender and pull the rope through the ring. Note: I don't recommend a Prussek for this...use an actual descender. 

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