I think a lot of people are missing the
point here, I am not saying when hanging lights never wear a harness. In your example were you on a
truss or where you actually in a
catwalk with railings and or walls? different scenarios mean different actions. I am not saying you should not wear a harness when hanging lights in a
catwalk I am just stating being on a
truss and being in a
catwalk are two different forms of light placements. Your story is enlightening as it shows that
safety should be kept at all times, was the bottom man wearing a
hard hat? If i remember correctly i was taught if anything over head is being worked on you should ALWAYS wear a helmet. this is the kind of thing i am refering to not an obvious do not do, such as what i saw at a life light concert, but i won't go into that.
the
point of this thread is not to say
safety shouldn't be thought of, just that it shouldn't always be first, if
safety were first at all times, there would be no hanging lights, there would be no set pieces, there would be no actors on
stage, or audience members in the audience at 100% of all venues.
This thread just is a discussion of when
safety is required at all times such as hanging lights at any height above 4'. not to mention how many times you've walked in a mall or a store and seen some water rot tiles on the ceiling whats to say an electrician didn't leave a wrench up there after installing
conduit? what happens when that tile breaks and that wrench comes crashing down? this is just an example of where
safety and keeping an eye out would be better.
No DuckJorden, we're not missing your
point. We're telling you that you're wrong! Based on your stubborn refusal to see the
point that so many of us have made in this thread, it seems obvious that just like me, you're going to have to learn your lesson about the importance of
safety the hard way.
Safety First! Safety Last! Safety Always!
What do I mean by this?
Safety First: Before you even start a job you should consider how to do the job safely. For instance when hanging lights, before I even begin I make sure all my lights have
safety cables.
Safety Last: When you're finished with a job, you should still be thinking about
safety. Double check your work and ask yourself if there is anything you forgot. For instance, when I'm done hanging lights, I double check all my fixtures to make sure they all have
safety cables just in case I missed one.
Safety Always: While you're doing the work, you should be thinking about how to do the job safely. Going back to the hanging lights example, while hanging lights I make sure that each light I hang has a
safety cable in use. I may have missed one or two in my pre-hang check.
For much of what we do in this industry, there is no way to make things 100% safe. There will always be an inherent danger in working at heights. But we can take steps to reduce that danger to acceptable levels. When I work on live electrical panels I am required to wear certain protective gear: EH rated
foot wear, all cotton clothing, a Nomex jump suit, rubber gloves that meet
arc flash hazard
category one or two standards (depending on the panel), cotton glove liners, leather glove protectors over the rubber gloves,
safety glasses, ear plugs, and a
hard hat with an electrically rated visor. I'm also required to remove my watch and any jewelry, though the second really isn't an issue as I don't wear jewelry anyway. Wearing all this
safety equipment is awkward and makes working on a panel a lot harder, usually tripling the amount of time it takes to get the job done due to a loss of dexterity in my hands. Even at that, it can take longer to put on all this
safety equipment than it does to actually do the work on the panel. But using this equipment properly gives me a much greater chance of coming out of an
arc flash incident alive and
in one piece by buying me half a second or so to get out of the path of the
arc flash.
My fall didn't just teach me to be safe in my climbing, but to learn, understand, and follow the
safety rules in all my duties. I can only hope that when you have your eye opening experience, you come out of it better than I did after mine. After nearly a decade of living with chronic pain issues, I can assure you it's not fun. And yet I still consider myself extremely lucky. Given the nature of my accident, I should not be walking, talking and breathing today.
Safety shouldn't always be first? I have to disagree.
Safety should
always come first. What I do think, though, is that sometimes "
safety" is taken to a ridiculous degree. With sensible assessing of risk and the appropriate management of those risks,
safety doesn't need to be prohibitive to day-to-day work, which it can sometimes do. For instance, in my
venue, a lot of the time we have to rig lights off ladders (bars don't fly and often the sets prohibit getting the scaff tower in) but we always have one person up the ladder and one running
ground support for them; lanterns are roped up and never carried up the ladder and if anyone is having a day where they don't feel up to climbing then they're put on another job. In my view, that's still making
safety a priority but not letting it get in the way of the job. If you're sensible about it,
safety can and should be the first priority.
Kiwitechgirl, you bring up a very good
point here, which would make for a far more productive discussion than whether or not
safety should always be the number one priority. That is the question of whether or not certain
safety rules take things too far and in fact create an unsafe work environment. I have on occasion, refused to obey certain
safety rules because I felt that following that particular rule would place my life at unnecessary risk. That said, my employer would have been well within their rights to fire me for my refusal to follow
safety rules. Some rules are specific to a certain
venue. Some insist that their techs wear hardhats. Others do not. The rules are there for a reason, even if that reason is as simple as because the
venue says so.
