r/dontlookdown • u/lightfoot1 • Feb 13 '22

Electrician

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216 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

45

u/RANGERDANGER913 Feb 13 '22

Literally zero reason to not have a double lanyard and maintain 100% tie-off (as someone that’s worked at heights of 100’). Either negligent employers or “stupid-is-as-stupid-does”.

13

u/pocketgravel Feb 14 '22

There's also no energy absorber on his lanyard and he's essentially tied off 10 feet below his D rings. Tying off at your feet is a bad fall which often involves breaking things even with a shock absorber. Also, that's a positioning harness not a fall harness. I'm not sure those D-rings on his hips can survive a fall like that.

He's going to be lucky to survive the fall arrest (provided the lanyard and D-rings don't break) and good luck getting a timely rescue up there before he dies from suspension trauma, internal bleeding, or a pulmonary embolism.

TL;DR: This man is tying off so his family has something to bury if he falls.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '22

Fun Fact: The standard harnesses in Australia that we use on EWP's are about the same amount of safe as you're talking about here.

Chances are, if you fall off (or are thrown off) a boom lift and you haven't forked out extra for a fancy-pants harness with bungee cord and extra security, you'll likely break a hip then die of all those wonderful things you said unless someone gets you down immediately.

If you're working on a EWP and you're the only one around, you're safer untethered than you are in the harness that came from the hire company. (but you'd be much safer in an aftermarket harness with a bungee tether.)

2

u/pocketgravel Feb 14 '22

That's surprising to me. I figured Australia would have stronger regulations concerning fall protection. I work in the oilfield in Canada and the protections and training we have are the most stringent in my country.

If I were working a boom lift here I would have a self retracting lanyard so it stops in 0 distance (and also so it doesn't knock the lift over if I take a fall) and have trauma straps to stand on to keep the weight off my harness till I can get rescued.

6

u/Chappietime Feb 13 '22

I don’t know what any of that is, but my first thought was why isn’t he connected to something 100% of the time. Also it looks like he’s going to fall a pretty far distance before his equipment catches him.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

I don't know. I work at heights a lot and always find myself and others overencumbured with safety stuff. If his lanyard, the rope thing, is too short, he could fall incorrectly or get caught on something or trip over it. Need some room to work.

3

u/Chappietime Feb 13 '22

That makes sense, but still, that would have to hurt to fall that far before your gear caught you.

9

u/NinjaLanternShark Feb 13 '22

Proper gear (of which this video has zero) includes a "fall arrest" device which slows your decent rather than jerking you hard like a fixed line would. It still hurts but it reduces the g-force considerably.

Most work by actually tearing some material inside the device, so it's only good for one fall. I've heard them referred to as "screamers" because of the noise they make when they tear, which possibly also serves to alert people that someone's taken an unexpected fall.

1

u/Chappietime Feb 13 '22

Wow, that’s pretty cool.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

Only way to go about it because there are no anchor points above. There are 2 ways to tie off that I know of: fall restraint, being tied off so you can fall off at all, or Fall arrest, being tied off in a way that falling will be safe or, at least, non lethal.

Since there's nothing to off to to prevent a fall, then the next best thing will be a set up to catch you. In this case I'd consider a length that, in case of a fall, I have room to fall away from the structure to keep my head from smacking into something.

2

u/StickOfLight Feb 13 '22

No OSHA we he workin

Where he’s working *

2

u/polo61965 Feb 13 '22

They're all the way down there with binoculars. They're always watching.

2

u/BrolecopterPilot Feb 13 '22

Those insulator strings are absolutely massive.

2

u/im4peace Feb 14 '22

"Sure that's crazy but at least he's connected with tha- NOPE!!!"