Let me be clear… I am not a Fall Protection expert in any stretch of the imagination, so I am all about engineering out the fall hazards whenever possible. A few weeks ago we received a call from a new client who had just suffered a bad accident where one of their star employees was on the roof working on a piece of equipment. The roof is perfectly flat and has a raised edge of 27″ around it. The employee was working on an environmental control device and as he was trying to pull some duct work up from the roof penetration, he began to step back in order to get the duct work up and out of the roof hole – something he had done dozens of times in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, this time he did it with his back to the edge and as he stepped back with this heavy piece of duct work that was hung up in the penetration, it broke free and he and the duct work took a 30′ fall over the edge. He survived merely because he flip in the air and landed on the fiberglass duct work which acted as a cushion. A fractured sternum and several broken ribs and he was back to work four days later on light duty. The results could have EASILY been a fatality; he knows it and the company knows.
In my survey of the roof there were many opportunities for a serious fall. This company has been convienced to install permanent railings 3600 around their roof edge. But this will take weeks to get the money approved and for full installation, so until the full installation is completed we have purchased some mobile railings that are SWEET! The company they bought them from provided a 2 hour training session on how to set them up properly and even rented a local crane to set the units on the roof for the company. The roof is a very large area so the company purchased four sets, with each set being 12′ long and hinged so it can be in different configuration. I then wrote them a one page policy/program as to when the railings are to be used, who is responsible for their set up and provided a two page appendix using the manufacturers instructions for set up, inspection/testing, break-down, and storage. We did a JSA on each scenario of the edge work and established the requirements for the number of units that would be needed and where they would actually be set up. The facility later went back and painted the outline of where each anchor is to be placed when working on the units needing fall protection. My general rule is that if the work takes an employee with 10′ of the edge then the railings are REQUIRED. Some of the scenarios required that two units be used together in order to provide ample coverage.
The workers are VERY HAPPY! The set up of these devices takes less than 10 minutes and we have made it very easy to understand the set up of the units with the painted markings (which we also added to their Work-Order system for an annual check of the markings to make sure they are still visible).
I want to stress, these mobile units are a TEMPORARY FIX for this company, as they will begin construction on the permanent railings as soon as the weather breaks!!! But these mobile units would make a nice addition to anyone who has equipment on their roof and workers who go up to work on it are exposed to a fall hazard. Many workers think they will never fall if they stay “X” feet away from the edge. But if you could spend 2 minutes with the employee involved in this fall you would have the advantage of knowing the rationale workers make to place themselves in harms way. This young man actually saw the raised edge as a form of protection, but now knows it was was ZERO protection! Don’t let your workers be fooled by thinking something is an engineering control that is providing some form of protection.
NOTE: I did not mention the brand of these mobile units in this posting on purpose as I do not want to be seen endorsing any one brand over others, but a simple google search of “portable guardrails” will provide ample selection to shop from. These units are surprisingly economical and VERY EASY to use. I am a believer of them for use as a TEMPORARY measure or in cases where there is NO WAY to install permanent railings.