Doing This Could Save Your Life When Working at Height

When we get familiar with our job and do the same thing day-in-day-out, it can be tempting to cut corners. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been to a company and seen the “old guy” who runs the shop say that he can get things done quicker doing it “his own way”.

When it comes to lifting, it’s absolutely essential everything is in place to ensure safety is paramount and things can’t be left to chance. You also can’t leave it up to one person to dictate how things are done.

Yes, procedures can be a bit tiring and nobody wants to follow them (except for the guy with glasses over there), but they save lives.

There are always going to be situations that you didn’t expect. It’s the nature of the world that something will happen that you hadn’t planned for and that’s when real planning comes in handy. There are many ways to ensure things are done to limit all problems, but just in case something does happen that you weren’t expecting, communication is the key to a quick resolution. If someone is working at height and they find there’s an issue up there, shouting down to get help isn’t really the best way to get attention. A clear communication is needed between the operators and the safety staff on the ground, so make sure there is one.

Obviously most people will use radios for this, but we can rely on them to work and therefore don’t test them. We’ve found that even before the easiest of jobs, it’s always best to check radios before lifting.

Also, if you’re using a “cherry picker” and have more than one person in the basket, have a radio for each one. If one person becomes incapacitated and drops the radio, that means the other can call for help.

And finally, how about putting your radios on a lanyard? So many people just hold them and then when both hands are needed, pop them on the floor of the basket. Instead, have it on a safety lanyard or clipped to the basket somewhere.

Looking at all the dangers when lifting or working at height, it’s sometimes easy to ignore the most obvious. Gravity is almost never on the check-list, but it should be as it can put the dampers on even the best of days!

Parts taken from an original article at Worlifts.com : http://www.worlifts.co.uk/blog/this-could-save-your-life-when-working-at-height/