Working at Heights Practices

Arrest harness or not, a tip over in a lift can cause serious injuries or death at any height.

The college I went to has a scholarship in memory of a student who died when the Genie lift fell into the pit.

One of my college's acting teacher's husbands was seriously injured when the Genie he was in tipped into the pit (IATSE crew).

Both instances WOULD have been avoided had the ground crews supporting the person in the lift been more vigilant. Proper calls to communicate movement of the lift, scenery and pit.

To add to this discussion, working at heights practices involving the ground support crew. Proper communication and alertness of the ground crew is important as well. Besides acting as a defense barrier to detect and track possible issues at the low level, they can be a second set of eyes to remind the person up high of safety measures they make be overlooking. As these two instances show, it doesn't matter what level of theater, safety is serious and isn't dependent upon one person.
 
I use a fall arrest harness a couple times a month to service our revolutions which are over our house. I know if I fell and was arrested by the harness I would not be happy and most likely injured. Out of curiosity has anyone here fallen in a harness and could talk about this experience?

Yes, as well as spending many hours studying the subject from the rescue side as well.

I was doing a focus, grabbed onto a energized can with a bad porcelian and got a good buzz. Enough to make me loose my bearings just long enough to topple. This is why we wear shock lanyards. Instead of a sharp stop that can cause trauma on several levels, its a "slow" stop.

Long story short, I was able to self resuce and had nothing but a tingle in my hand, and a bruised ego. If you are wearing proper PPE and wearing it correctlythen that is all you should experience.

However, all this recent talk about suspension trauma, it can happen. But not so much in our setting. Is that to say not to be prepared to combat it? No. Essientially, suspension trauma is the same concept as having a tournaquet on an appendage. You deprive your cells of oxygen, then go into a anaerobic state in which they start consuming themselves to survive. Also, the lactic acids and other wastes cant leave due to the lack of blood flow to the area. Once you release that pressure and allow blood to flow, you surge the affected area causeing weakened cells to burst as well as you overwhelm your body with a sudden rush of waste. This in turn, to put in simply, puts your body into a type of shock.

But all of this can be avoided!

Learn proper self rescue techniques.
Wear correct PPE correctly.


As to another post about upriggers wearing hard hats, and the lack of need..
I disagree.

I have had several instances rigging where your steel gets tensioned in a weird way and it comes back to bite you. Or those low beams in arenas? They hurt. Outdoors massive stadium show? Almost every safty code you can find says anyone working in the direct area of a crane needs a hard hat on.

Just my two cents!
 
Yes, as well as spending many hours studying the subject from the rescue side as well.

I was doing a focus, grabbed onto a energized can with a bad porcelian and got a good buzz. Enough to make me loose my bearings just long enough to topple. This is why we wear shock lanyards. Instead of a sharp stop that can cause trauma on several levels, its a "slow" stop.

Long story short, I was able to self resuce and had nothing but a tingle in my hand, and a bruised ego. If you are wearing proper PPE and wearing it correctlythen that is all you should experience.

However, all this recent talk about suspension trauma, it can happen. But not so much in our setting. Is that to say not to be prepared to combat it? No. Essientially, suspension trauma is the same concept as having a tournaquet on an appendage. You deprive your cells of oxygen, then go into a anaerobic state in which they start consuming themselves to survive. Also, the lactic acids and other wastes cant leave due to the lack of blood flow to the area. Once you release that pressure and allow blood to flow, you surge the affected area causeing weakened cells to burst as well as you overwhelm your body with a sudden rush of waste. This in turn, to put in simply, puts your body into a type of shock.

But all of this can be avoided!

Learn proper self rescue techniques.
Wear correct PPE correctly.


As to another post about upriggers wearing hard hats, and the lack of need..
I disagree.

I have had several instances rigging where your steel gets tensioned in a weird way and it comes back to bite you. Or those low beams in arenas? They hurt. Outdoors massive stadium show? Almost every safty code you can find says anyone working in the direct area of a crane needs a hard hat on.

Just my two cents!
A hard hat is not needed if you are the top of the heap. I prefer guys that are 50 to 100 ft above me not drop hardhats at me. Having a crane above you does not make you top of the heap. Think of it in terms of construction. If you are on a roof puttig down hot melt then you don't need hardhats. Now the HVAC guys show up and start setting units ahead of you with a crane, now you need a hardhat.
As far as battling suspension trauma, as long as you are awake and aware then you can fight it. If you fall, hit your head and are knocked unconcious then you have a problem. You can't fight your belt or self rescue if you aren't concious. It's could also be possible if you had a serious injury, back pelvis leg or arm.
All that said, I have done rescues but never was there a chance of suspension trauma. It is rare but something that anybody that works in heights knows about and understands. They also have to know the rescue plan in case of a fall.
 
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I am bringing this thread back to the surface due to a recent accident in South Carolina. While details are not known of the exact cause, knowing safe work practices and keeping vigilant when working at heights is imperative.
 
The news report seems to indicate a toppled over one person lift, but how or why can't be determined without more info. Working alone was the first mistake but whether or not that contributed directly to the accident or prevented help from being summoned in time to prevent the fatality we can't tell without more information.
 
A hard hat is not needed if you are the top of the heap. I prefer guys that are 50 to 100 ft above me not drop hardhats at me.

We need to borrow an idea from the riggers that climb radio towers every day. Common hard hats are nearly worthless for high work because they fly off so easily. The tower crews use a helmet that looks like ones for mountain climbing. It is more snug to the head, has more skull coverage, brimless, and has a chin strap to keep it on, no matter what. The lack of a brim makes it much easier to see above, which also helps to prevent accidents. I haven't seen a typical hard hat used by any tower crews in years. Proper head protection saves lives, and common hard hats are a feeble substitute.

http://www.gmesupply.com/safety-wear/safety-helmets/petzl-helmets
 
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I use a Petzl Vertex when climbing as a roof tech.
So much better than my traditional hats for at height work.
 
I would really like to know if he was using the outriggers or not. :-/

I know from several sessions at USITT that there is a lot of debate going on in the industry concerning if a fall arrest harness is needed in a Genie, and where to clip it to. Genie says to clip it to the basket, but apparently that makes a lot of people very uncomfortable.
 
I would really like to know if he was using the outriggers or not. :-/

I know from several sessions at USITT that there is a lot of debate going on in the industry concerning if a fall arrest harness is needed in a Genie, and where to clip it to. Genie says to clip it to the basket, but apparently that makes a lot of people very uncomfortable.

IMO clipping into the basket accomplishes nothing. At best it encourages standing on the rails, or leaning way out to reach something instead of taking the time to move the lift. And if the lift is going over I'd rather not be attached to it. There is that tiny chance that I could grab onto something overhead and not fall to the ground. If I'm clipped in I don't have even that tiny chance. It's not like being in the basket offers any protection on impact with the ground.
 
I was working on a gig where in order to drive a lift in their building you had to have a building specific cert. Which meant that the house guy was effectively the only one who could drive it. Of course he was also probably the worst lift driver in the building (no less the 30 professional lighting/sound/rigging/scenic techs being there).
 
Thats likely an insurance thing, a local venue has the same requirements but do yearly training sessions with the local union to get the members insured to drive forks and man lifts
 
Many venues will only allow specific people to drive motorized equipment in their facilities. This way the building staff can be assured that the operator is aware of specific policies and potential dangers at their venue. Someone who may be a more experienced driver could potentially come into a venue and cause an accident if they are unaware of the load rating of a particular section of the floor, for instance. IIRC, there is a standard for aerial work platforms and personnel lifts which recommend that the operator receives individualized training at each worksite in order to establish that they recognize hazards present, not just an insurance thing.
 
The training I received actually puts the responsibility of identifying and avoiding hazards on me, the operator, not my employer nor owner of the lift. I ask for location specific hazards if I'm in a different venue or location than I normally work, but not everyone is so thorough, so I can see why these kinds of house rules exist.
 
The summary of my training was "You are now capable of approaching any lift (boom, scissor, vertical mast, etc) and seeking out which information you need to know to operate that lift safely."

Different quirks from different manufacturers aren't something you can learn from a manual though. I was on a construction site not long ago with JLG and Genie boom lifts. Everyone stopped using the JLG because of how dangerous it was to use on a sloped surface. Unlike the Genie, when you went to move it even a couple inches, it fully disengaged the brakes and the whole weight of the lift on that slope made it start barreling down the slope. Only way to stop it was the E-stop, to release your foot from the pedal to kill it, or to slam in into reverse. Painters had learned the hard way that if you try to stop its free fall by slamming it in reverse, you needed to have the throttle cranked up to overcome the force of the lift accelerating down the incline.

Same job site where a plumber 360'd in the Genie boom lift because they had just polished the concrete rake of the seating area and he drove across it, striking a piece of cardboard with one wheel. He lost all traction on that wheel and the whole lift wildly pivoted around on him until he regained enough traction again.

This is the long way of saying, you can only learn so much from a manual, and that there's no substitute for experience and for speaking with people who have used that same lift before in those same conditions. And for being smart enough to realize not all hazards will be apparent to you at first glance so you should always remain vigilant (such as a piece of scrap cardboard on a polished concrete incline).
 
That is a perfect example of what OSHA requires for jobsite specific training.

Question 4: When employees move from job site to job site, must employers retrain employees on how to operate a lift prior to each job?

Answer: Section 1926.454 states that employers "shall have each employee who performs work while on a scaffold trained by a person qualified in the subject matter to recognize the hazards associated with the type of scaffold being used and to understand the procedures to control or minimize those hazards...." If there are hazards associated with the operation of the equipment on the new job site for which the employee has not been trained, then additional training would be required. For example, there may be electrical hazards, falling object hazards, and hazards associated with the terrain on the new job site that were not present at the previous site. Training addressing those new hazards would be required.
https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=24191

@Max Warasila you are correct in that the operator is required to know how to determine hazards and how to avoid them, but there may be things that cannot be specifically identified. Can you walk into a new theater and immediately know if the floor could support the weight of a lift? There's a good chance that you couldn't. However, the venue manager should be able to provide that data to your employer (if they aren't currently the employer) who could then train you as to where you could drive the lift.
 
Many venues will only allow specific people to drive motorized equipment in their facilities. This way the building staff can be assured that the operator is aware of specific policies and potential dangers at their venue. Someone who may be a more experienced driver could potentially come into a venue and cause an accident if they are unaware of the load rating of a particular section of the floor, for instance. IIRC, there is a standard for aerial work platforms and personnel lifts which recommend that the operator receives individualized training at each worksite in order to establish that they recognize hazards present, not just an insurance thing.

I wouldn't say most if you include hotels with ballrooms. Most of them say do you know how to drive a lift? ok cool its over there.
 

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