These are the front lighting positions for an outdoor venue I've lit for the past few years.
I'm looking for a way to provide some minimal fall arrest precautions for whoever has to climb these things. It's a volunteer outfit and I'm getting sick of risking my neck for free. I'm certainly not going to ask anyone else to.
Here's the problem (AKA why nothing's already been done):
The biggest problem area (besides the improper ladder use) is the climb up the rungs on the pole. once you get in the basket, the railing is more than sufficient to keep one from falling out.
Getting into the basket takes some worming. There is certainly solid footing on the upper rungs, one is unlikely to fall while trying to get in the basket. However, wearing a standard harness and lanyard, it is very easy to get hung up and trapped (I've tried).
Any safety solution has to be strike-able from the ground. We cannot secure the towers any other way than to remove the ladders to make them inaccessible. they are in a public park and there is a lot of copper in those cable runs, which get dragged up and live in the baskets when not in use. We used to leave them looped around the bottom rungs, only to have half of them stolen.
The only thing I've been able to think of is a Genie. which is not feasible budget-wise.
putting chains at the levels of the rungs to tie on to A) gives you another thing to catch your feet on B) triples the time it takes to climb and C) leaves one with only two points of contact for brief periods.