Highway 12 Construction Darwin Nominee
- Thread starter pDigital32Dawg
- Start date
You do see he raised his boom as high as he could without damaging the telecommunications wire,right? He's wearing a harness restraint and a hard hat. I'm fairly certain he'd rather be sitting on his *** typing on his I-phone hypothesizing on how other people are dumbasses, but instead he's displaying good judgement and work ethic.
I salute people who work like this electrician, they deserve your respect, not your mockery.
I thought the same thing when I first saw the picture. I just assumed I must be missing something. Looks to me he's doing it as safely as possible.
And the harness is anchored below his legs, your anchor point is suppose to be high. When you fall your falling your height (avg 6'), then the legnth of your restraint (3-4' with some longer). You may not hit the ground, but your 17ed up from falling that hard from that distance.
The place I work at has 26 foot roofs at the peak and our scissor lift will only go to 19 feet. We once had a maintenance guy who would get a sheet of plywood and a 6 foot step ladder and put it in the lift with him. He would go up 19 feet, lay the plywood across the hand rail, put the step ladder on the plywood and climb up it to change light bulbs. I'm not talking about a dump truck bed size lift, it is about 2 feet wide by 5 feet long.
just because he did it that way doesn't make it right. he's an idiot. and would probably be the first to try to sue the company when he falls. the guy on the picture is trying to do right, but he is still wrong. the harness needs to be higher. if you can't fix it with the equipment you have, then get different equipment. i know its easier to say 17 it and just risk it, but its not worth being in bed with someone cleaning your **** bag the rest of your life to save some time from getting a different lift.
all that said, i would be doing the same thing. the picture above, not the warehouse dumb dick.
I agree with Allday. This guys boss could GAF about the electricians "excuse" of the boom hitting the support for the light/ com line. Obviously the guy is a workhorse that gets **** done. If you have ever worked in the construction/maintenance environment you would know a "layoff" can happen at any moment. Up vote for you Allday.
You can salute him in his casket too. This is a pretty damn blatant OSHA violation. Wearing a fall arrest harness and a hard hat doesn't make it any better. One of the first rules of any OSHA training is that any PPE such as the fall arrest and the hard hat is always a secondary hazard prevention method, with the primary prevention method being the following of all safety rules for the work being done as well as the equipment being used. That is even more true in this instance because, as another poster stated, the fall arrest cannot be secured to a proper anchor point over the worker's head due to the nature of the work. There is no way in hell that the scoop was designed for workers to stand on the lip while working at elevated heights, and my guess is there is significant signage on the equipment indicating that to be the case.
This is pretty much a classic example of how most all work place hazards occur. They are cutting corners because they don't want to waste time repositioning the truck, getting a new truck out there that is more design-suited for the work at hand, or they want to minimize external inconveniences like blocking traffic flow, etc.
Simply put, this worker isn't working as safely as possible because he isn't following the safety rules of the equipment. He can easily request to reposition the truck or get a new one out there, or tell SED to go 17 themselves. No paycheck is worth him violating basic safety practices and his employer should lay that culture down at the onset.
Just looked up the applicable reg:
29 CFR 1910.67(c)(2)(iv) for Vehicle-mounted elevating and rotating work platforms
Employees shall always stand firmly on the floor of the basket, and shall not sit or climb on the edge of the basket or use planks, ladders, or other devices for a work position.
29 CFR 1910.67(c)(2)(iv) for Vehicle-mounted elevating and rotating work platforms
Employees shall always stand firmly on the floor of the basket, and shall not sit or climb on the edge of the basket or use planks, ladders, or other devices for a work position.
The larger the company the more likely this type of behavior would not be allowed. Injuries cost companies huge $$$$$ and OSHA loves to target larger companies which can bring millions in fines. Small mom and pop's or local companies don't get targeted by Osha nearly as often. They get away with doing stupid things for years, until finally one of their workers gets injured or killed. Then they will blame the worker for not being safer or more agile.
Make no mistake, the big companies don't care more about our safety or you as an employee. They just see the $$$.
Most likely, if he repositioned the truck, he would not have to climb out to reach it. Yes, this is dumb, no I don't applaud someone for working hard if they do it unsafely.
It takes extra training and discipline for anyone working maintenance over typical production/operator type jobs because they are always going into "Upset" conditions that they have never seen before. It takes dedicated supervision to make sure everyone does it the safe and right way. Most likely that guy gets away with it for another decade or two but someday either him or the new guy that isn't as capable, gets hurt and badly.
Make no mistake, the big companies don't care more about our safety or you as an employee. They just see the $$$.
Most likely, if he repositioned the truck, he would not have to climb out to reach it. Yes, this is dumb, no I don't applaud someone for working hard if they do it unsafely.
It takes extra training and discipline for anyone working maintenance over typical production/operator type jobs because they are always going into "Upset" conditions that they have never seen before. It takes dedicated supervision to make sure everyone does it the safe and right way. Most likely that guy gets away with it for another decade or two but someday either him or the new guy that isn't as capable, gets hurt and badly.
Looks to me like the 2nd section of boom isn't extended at all. Zoom in on the piston on the hydraulic cylinder that raises 2nd section, its fully inside the cylinder, doesn't look extended at all. This looks to me like they're just being lazy and not wanting to reposition the truck to where the boom can get to the height needed.
The problem we have here is very simple if they know anything about OSHA, there is not one competent person on this job. Who here is in charge?
Im looking at a 3" thick competent person training manual right now. It's for a different type of work but the principle applies to this situation.
Im looking at a 3" thick competent person training manual right now. It's for a different type of work but the principle applies to this situation.
Correct. And the boom arm is also well under 10 feet from the adjacent power cable, which is another violation.
Harness yes, hardhat/helmet no. Neither the working platform (boom) nor the light pole were stable. Both were moving considerably as he was doing his work. I don't know how you can defend this as good judgment.
The fallacy in this thread is that you arm chair contractors believe this poor bastard had a choice. To reposition the truck would have meant the company would have had to get a MSDOT permit to block 2 lanes of a State Hwy, detain several local policeman and back traffic up for miles.
The guy could not have fallen to the ground because of his harness.
I can promise you the guy did not want to work over his head and out of the bucket, no one wants to, but if your next paycheck depends on your resourcefulness, I'd say buy that man a beer the next time you see him.
This country and even your house was built by people who don't have the luxury of choice.
The guy could not have fallen to the ground because of his harness.
I can promise you the guy did not want to work over his head and out of the bucket, no one wants to, but if your next paycheck depends on your resourcefulness, I'd say buy that man a beer the next time you see him.
This country and even your house was built by people who don't have the luxury of choice.
So, if it requires too much paperwork or delay to the project, just go ahead and commit an OSHA violation instead (and its been proven already in this thread that's exactly what it was). Got it. Thanks for proving my point in my earlier post. I honestly hope you or anyone who thinks like you is never associated with any construction project that I'm on.
And him "not being able to fall to the ground because of the harness" is such a BS statement for so many reasons. One, the harness could be faulty or not secured properly. Two, any type of fall presents a hazard whether you hit the ground or not. Even with a harness, there is a hazard from falling and swinging like a pendelum into an adjacent object (in this case, the boom arm or truck itself). Broken bones, spinal injuries, and even deaths can and have occurred from such a fall type. The fact that he could not anchor the harness in a proper location directly over his head only increases that risk.
The worker always has a choice. He may not know he has a choice, or may not know that what he is doing is unsafe because he wasn't trained properly and assumed the harness is a perfect failsafe (as I suspect is true in this case), but he has a choice. And if his employer is willing to terminate him or lay him off because he refuses to work unsafely, he'd be better off working somewhere else anyways. And he'd also have an open and shut wrongful termination suit if he chose to pursue that.
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Never realized OSHA rules were optional before. Actually, I guess I did because over my career, I've worked with some construction companies that follow them scrupulously and some that ignore them when it's convenient to. Guess which group doesn't understand why their insurance rates are so high. And yeah, he won't need to fall to the ground to get 17ed up, that boom arm is perfectly capable of doing the job. Not to mention the harness is a SECONDARY safety device to begin with.
Boy this is some first class stupidity right here. If blocking Hwy 12 is what it takes to get the job done safely then by god Hwy 12 has got to be blocked. All you contractors are always trying to cut corners and so you can make money on your low bid. I hope nobody that works for/with you ever gets killed because you encouraged them to disregard occupational in order to save a few bucks sort term. People like you are the reason labor unions refuse to finally die.
Also "The guy could not have fallen to the ground because of his harness." Want to bet your life on it? I don't.
Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure you can get sued for terminating an employee who refused your order to commit an OSHA violation. Legal experts confirm or refute.
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