The risks of falls from height are well known. As are the consequences. Going from safe to not safe can happen easily, and very quickly.
When most people think about falls from height, and fall protection, they think about complex scenarios involving working off the side of a skyscraper, or climbing a large construction crane, or those YouTube videos of people scaling a massive radio transmission tower.
While all those environments do require some form of fall protection and height safety system, the reality is that the majority of fatal falls occur in scenarios that are much more mundane and much more common.
The relative banality of these scenarios, paired with the incentives that exist in workplace that place safety at a much lower priority compared to getting the job done, often mean that it is a split-second decision, or lack of decision, that is the difference between staying safe or… not.
Falls without protection
Many fatal falls from height occur as a result of someone working or access a high-risk area without utilising, or being able to utilise, a fall protection system.
There are many reasons why this can end up being the case. Much of the time it comes down to a task being seen as easy to do, or quick. The work of a moment.
In others, it can come about because a risk was not identified either through oversight (risk assessment process was not thorough enough) or unfamiliarity with a work environment (it is hard to take in every possible aspect of a place that is new to you).
One of the biggest risks that can exist under both these scenarios are skylight panels. That the vast majority of skylight panels installed on roofs cannot be trafficked is often unknown to workers. Paired with that, in many cases it can be incredibly easy to stand on one and not realise it when traversing a roof.
Just within the construction field, there are numerous examples of workers falling through skylight panels after treading on them. The SafeWork NSW website documents many of them, from just within that state.
Unprotected edges and voids are another common area where falls happen without a protection system in place. These falls are particularly common in building, construction and renovation sites. It can be all too easy to for barricades or covering plates to be removed by one trade so they can undertake their work and for that removal to go unnoticed by another who is focussed on their own work.
Fall protection is not always fall prevention
The only way to ensure that all fall risks have been removed from a workplace is to eliminate them entirely and have no worker, ever, be working at height. In just about every case, this is just not possible. This is where the hierarchy of control and fall protection systems come into play.
Just because a workplace has a fall protection or height safety system installed does not mean that a fall can no longer occur. The vast majority of fall protection systems require workers connect to and use those systems correctly in order to be protected against the risks associated with working at height. They protect against the risks associated with falls; they do not prevent them in all circumstances.
Take for example a fairly typical roof anchor point system. Here, a worker (wearing a harness and most likely using a rope line and adjuster to connect themselves to the system) uses fall restraint technique as the main form of mitigation against a fall risk. The main cause of falls in these scenarios is restraint technique not being correctly followed. To stay safe requires continuous concentration on the part of the worker. Any lapse, even for the briefest of moments, changes the risk equation considerably.
To put that theory into a realistic environment, a worker might use a roof anchor system while undertaking gutter cleaning on the roof of a building. Moving along the roof requires connecting and disconnecting to roof anchors to access different areas along the roof edge.
A common mistake made in this scenario is for the worker to connect to one single anchor and then adjust their rope, letting out more and more of it, as they move along the gutter completing their work. Lengthening the rope line in this way means the worker is no longer protected by fall restraint technique. That is, the system is not working in such a way as to prevent them from going over the edge of the roof in the event of a fall. One misstep or loss of balance means the work would find themselves in free fall. The safety system would then need to arrest their fall, and, in all likelihood, a rescue operation would need to be performed to quickly recover them from suspension.
In the worst-case situation, a worker would let out so much rope, the system would not arrest their fall at all. This would place the worker in extreme risk of significant injury and likely death.
Fall arrest falls
In some cases, it is not possible to even use fall restraint technique. In those cases, the works rely on a fall arrest system.
A fall arrest system will not prevent the fall from happening. But when they are correctly designed and implemented, they will ensure that when a fall occurs it will be controlled and the worker protected against significant injury.
Working in a system like this is not desirable as it is an admission that a fall cannot be prevented from occurring, except through the worker simply not falling. Which means they are being placed at significant risk. Additional control measures and work practices should be used in conjunction with a fall arrest system in these situations.
Any fall is likely to require the worker be rescued from a suspended state. This must occur quickly, or the worker could suffer the effects of suspension trauma.
Partners in protecting people
At Height Safety Engineers, we are committed to protecting everyone working at heights and in high-risk environments. No matter the situation, our team have the experience and expertise to design, install and maintain best practice fall prevention, fall protection and height safety systems.
Start your safety journey with us by calling 1300 884 978, emailing enquiries@heightsafety.net or using the contact form on this page.
