RayWPremium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
kudos:1 | Yesterday and today, and stupidity and greed I remember how we use to climb back in the 70's. A simple body harness with a single clip that we would wrap around something and clip back onto the lanyard or maybe onto something small enough for the clip ONCE we got up to the work spot. Today even amateurs have a much better body harness, two lanyards that are used as you climb, shock absorbers so you lessen the chance of breaking something, and other devices to help keep you safe. And on well built sites, anti-fall mechanisms on the ladder or access point.
Yet even with all the new toys for safety, built in safety points on towers, and training, you still have techs/engineers who want that extra two inches and defeat the safety to do it instead of correctly resetting everything. Yes it took seconds to do the job that way and minutes to do it correctly, but on a tall tower you could have a long time to regret it if you slip (and it probably would seem to take hours before you hit hit).
And on the greed side, without a strong oversight group, worn equipment is not replaced like it should, and while it is cheaper than paying death benefits (assuming the climbers get that) and doing the paperwork, many companies do not update the gear like they should because of the bottom line. And the private guy may be even worse since he uses it day in and day out and can not see the wear until it gets real bad.
And that goes for working in trees too, I heard that we lost a good friend of mine in Texas, fell out of a tree last week.
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I am not lost, I find myself every time. |
