Residents in the Tsuen Wan district of Hong Kong were shocked to find a work man working on the 10th floor of a high rise industrial building wearing no safety equipment.
The man, who had been hired to dismantle a glass window so they could install a new air conditioning unit, was seen balancing on a narrow ledge trying to get back into the building through a small window. Witnesses were so afraid of the man’s safety – they called the emergency services to prevent an accident.
The worker tried to jump through the window to exit the danger that he was in, however his first attempt failed, leaving the scared onlookers holding their breath. Luckily on the second attempt he managed to enter the building successfully.
Luckily this worker was OK and didn't slip, trip or fall. But it could have so easily been a completely different story. After all, all it takes is one misplaced step, a step on a loose piece of concrete, a gust of wind and an accident can tragically happen.
In fact, accidents from working at height are the single biggest cause of workplace fatalities and life changing injuries. Yet we see time and time again, people who seemingly have no regard for their own, (or other peoples) safety and are willing to put their lives (and other people’s lives) at risk to will carry out work. There is no clear reason as to why people recklessly put their lives into danger in this manner; it could be that they fear that if they refuse to do the job they won’t have any work in the morning?The one thing we know is that no job is worth risking your life for.
It is your employer’s job to ensure that any work at height has been properly planned, is carried out by people who are properly trained to work at height, and that the correct safety equipment is provided. If you are not presented with the right equipment to carry out a job, you are well within your right to refuse to do the job until you either have either purchased the equipment yourself, or your employer provides you with the correct protective equipment.
The working at height regulations 2005 state that to stay safe you should only carry out work at height if it completely necessary to do so, and even then work should only commence if your workers have access to the right protective equipment.
Not only is it important that you are using the correct safety equipment, it is important that your safety equipment is in good condition. This means that your equipment has no signs of wear or tear, not fraying and not wearing thin. If, when checking your equipment before undergoing the work, you see that there are signs of damage – stop work immediately and replace the damaged item.
Here at SafetyLiftinGear we supply a huge range of safety harnesses, from your basic height safety harness through to more specialist insulated harnesses. If are looking for a specialist safety harness and cannot locate it on our website, please contact our expert customer service team by calling 0808 123 6969 or email sales@safetyliftingear.com
The walkway we used for this project is specifically designed for modern roof types such as trapezoidal profile composite or built-up-on-site and standing seam roofs. It is fully compliant with EN516:2006 requirements, and it can be used on a number of differently-shaped roofs (including flat, sloping, and barrel-shaped), with steps and a traverse option allowing for virtually any roof configuration between 0 and 35 degrees.
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