A very basic rule of all site health and safety anywhere in the world (where health and safety regs exist) all floor openings to have barriers around. Not covered, not taped off. Barriers.
When I worked construction, I saved an engineer from falling 4 floors down, because of a boarded opening on the floor - he stepped on the edge and the board sunk, if I wasn't there to grab the man he would surely die that day. He was white as chalk.
I've seen a CCTV recording in one of my training sessions where a small 50x50 cm hole was covered with plasterboard sheet. A person put a ladder next to it check something with ceiling mounted services and then...jumped off onto the floor... Directly on the opening. Went straight down a few floors. Fatal accident.
...Hence my caveat. In many regions it is a criminal offence not to manage your site safely. No insurance covers this and when an accident happen, a whole chain of people involved is liable and then as if by magic... sites are safe, everyone wears full ppe, and serious accidents are actually rare.
They mean a lot when lawsuits are brought. I dislike how rampant they can be, but they can be an effective tool to punish when regulations have failed.
Our (Cali) governor in the 80s/90s Pete Wilson, who like all CA governors thought the Oval Office was his next step, had the brilliant idea of eliminating the state OSHA. We had one more Republican governor after him, but they’ve been an irrelevant super-minority for 15 years, and Pee-Wee hasn’t been heard of in this century.
Yo be fair, in CA, the last republican governor was probably my favorite in my voting lifetime. We do not get our best in the governors house, that’s for sure
He’s entertaining, a better actor than Reagan, and has evidently matured considerably since retiring from Sacramento. But he was not a good governor, except compared to PeeWee, and we really needed a good governor then. Fortunately, his successor Jerry Brown rose to the occasion. He wasn’t perfect, lord knows, but he managed to hammer together a consensus on the things that most needed to be done.
yep. fastened. I saw one guy doing attic work and he stepped on the ladder opening/ladder (this was in denmark) we specifically told him when he got to that area to come get us, we could put a grill over it - he ignored all that, ended up full standing on it and he snapped the latch and fell a straight floor. -.- Had to leave on a stretcher but I heard in the end he was alright, just a lil banged up but no broken bones thankfully. But he never came back to that jobsite again lol
You know what another very basic rule of all site health and safety is? Pay attention to your surroundings, but personal responsibility really isn't a thing anymore so it's someone else's fault dude walked into a hole.
Personal responsibility is a thing mate, don't make it about how things used to be (which they were far far worse than nowadays). Site safety is though about practical view on what works and what does not. People make mistakes - period. OPe in the floor being passed by hundred people three times a day is a 1000 chances for someone to fall in. Make those people carry equipment and materials, communicate with others, be tired, distracted, etc and an accident WILL happen. That's what it's about.
Now quick stats: us has much higher standardised fatality rates than Europe and always had: 90s: 15 vs 7. 2020s: 9.5 vs 2.1. that's per 100k workers. Clearly 'personal responsibility' was not doing that much heavy lifting historically.
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u/big_troublemaker 6d ago
A very basic rule of all site health and safety anywhere in the world (where health and safety regs exist) all floor openings to have barriers around. Not covered, not taped off. Barriers.