Fall Protection on Television

Have you ever found yourself watching one of those home improvements shows and they are using something wrong? Well, being in the industry that we are in, we do notice when people are using fall protection gear wrong. Oftentimes, while watching television and we see houses being transformed from rundown to a beautiful mansion, we sometimes notice that the guys on the job are misusing the equipment.

Recently, one of our team members was watching a show and his wife noticed someone wearing a fall protection harness. They noticed that the harness was not being properly used. If they were to fall to the ground it would have been a bad scene. That is why we wanted to bring it to the attention of others that sometimes what you watch on television is not always the correct way. In our case it was when we saw fall protection gear not being used correctly.

A scenario that brought this topic to light was when one of our team members was watching one of these shows and they were using equipment the wrong way. It looked like they were using a standard fall protection bucket kit that you can pick up anywhere or online. There was a harness, a rope and grab, and a roof anchor that was nailed in as well. The person had all of the slack pulled out of the rope with the grab was hanging loosely. They were on a section of roof that was about 8 foot off the ground with about 30 feet of slack in the rope.

Another scenario was when there was a person tied off with a harness on. At first glance it was good that the guy appeared to be tied off, however when you started looking at his personal fall arrest system. He actually had a standard rope that you would have at a job site tied around the D-Ring. We know that you need a rated rope with a vertical lifeline assembly that you would find in a bucket kit attached to the dorsal D ring. Instead, he had a rope knotted around it. That would not arrest his fall if he were to fall. There was no shock pack or energy absorption device, so the likelihood of him hitting the ground if he were to fall would be very likely.

So, that leads our team into the training and awareness of your situations. When you’re wearing a personal fall arrest system, the harness is not a Superman cape. You have to do everything correctly and wearing your harness is step 1. What you’re connected to and how you’re connected to it also means a lot. So, Malta Dynamics just asks those that do watch television shows and see equipment being used, double check and make sure that before you use it that way that it is being used correctly.

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