Elfin safety again

[TMC]

Just had a new sky dish fitted and have read the recent thread

They really have thought of pretty much every safety addon for the guy up the ladder

Even gloves to protect their hands with fold back thumb and index fingers so that the fingers they are actually using can be left unprotected

Watching him work was like something out of its a knockout

What I did not get however was that the guy up the ladder was wearing a hard hat with nothing but the sky above him whereas the guy on the ground near the bottom of the ladder was not

Regards

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:01:10 +0100 someone who may be "TMC" wrote this:-

Presumably at some stage the satellite dish was above him, which he had attached to the wall in "its a knockout" fashion.

[TMC]

I thnk that I was more amused by the absence of the hat for the guy on the ground as it would appear that the risk assessment had not considered him (and he was on top form safety wise as he was supervising the guy on the ladder whio was doing his last practice day before being assesed for his fitters qualification)

[Pete Zahut]

BT engineers (now of course, Openreach) have had to wear hard hats when climbing telegraph poles for years now. I don't know if it's an elfin safety legal requirement or just a company thing but my mate had a disciplinary against him for not wearing a hard hat to climb a pole at least 10 years ago.

[John]

A lot of safety rules are applied globally to worker groups. Everyone on a construction site wears a hard hat even if they are only guiding a lorry into place with nothing above them. It avoids the great list of when and when nots to them with little down side. After all, when you see something heading your way, it's a bit late.

John

[TMC]

I agree

I was a rock climbing instuctor for several years and it was a golden rule that everyone at the base of the climb wear a helmet at all times whether they were climbing or not

Belayers at the top had an option as the only thing like to hit them on the head was bird s**t, however having climbed up wearing a helmet they would not normally take it off as it might fall and hit someone or even if it missed would then have to be replaced

Hence my amusement that a guy a few feet off of the ground had every bit of safety gear imaginable (including the biggest twist lock pear shape karabiner I have ever seen being at least I guess 9 inches long and was not used as far as I could see) and the guy standing below him was not wearing a hard hat even though we were discussing the safety gear at the time.

[Jethro]

A colleague of mine had a new phone line installed, and the engineer had to call a cherry picker in, as he wasn't allowed to climb the telegraph pole ...

[TMC]

It does make me wonder where this all ends

After this safety gear which they apparently have to use even if they are fitting the dish to the wall of a bungalow and could touch the dish from the ground, there appeared to be no safe way of getting the ladder down with the risk of it falling on them

[Pete Zahut]

Ah, now that could have been for genuine reasons.

Dangerous-to-climb poles get a red square with the letter D slapped on them (or at least they did in my day) for such reasons as (a) being surrounded by spikey railings or any walls that have barbed or razor wire - basically any situation that meant if the engineer fell off the pole he would be impaled on something, (b) any signs of rot or damage to the base of the pole which meant it might snap when climbed, (c) any signs of rot around, or looseness of the metal steps - and a few other reasons that could genuinely cause harm to the engineer if the pole was climbed.

[Ron Lowe]

What's your take on Gri-Gris?

Whilst climbing at our local wall, I notice all instruction is now done using these things.

I worry about these individuals then going out on a real crag and belaying a leader on double ropes with a standard belay plate, and letting go when he falls.

I'm sure these devices have a place ( but I'm not sure where ), but I'm concerned they teach the wrong message to beginners about always having a hand on the control rope.

[Jerry]

: : A colleague of mine had a new phone line installed, and the engineer : had to call a cherry picker in, as he wasn't allowed to climb the : telegraph pole ...

Did you ask?

I have a mate who used to be a GPO/BT engineer, whilst climbing/working at the top of a pole one day, he had his (apprentice) 'mate' shout up to him asking What does a white circle with white cross inside it mean if painted on a telegraph pole?" - needless to say my mate was down that pole PDQ, he was actually able to push a screw-driver some way into the pole...

[Scott M]

No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. The guy up the ladder *must* wear a helmet as he's the one, if something went wrong, who'd be hit by the satellite first...

[Pete Verdon]

I saw a case of this a few years ago, that I really wish I had taken a photo of. Would have been a classic scene.

The workman in question was clearing a small amount of litter from a sloping section of concrete seafront. He was wearing a drysuit, a lifejacket, a hard hat, a full-body harness, safety boots, and gloves. He had two lines fastened to the railings at the top of the slope, one through a figure-8 on his harness and the other through an automatic belay device.

At the water's edge, watching with open mouths as this alien being walked down the shallow slope towards them, were two 8-year old boys in swimming trunks playing with a model boat.

An absolute gem of a tableau for an "elfin safety" caption competition.

Pete