This was at the plant I work at. He survived. Minor injuries. All of our fall protection now has retractable lanyards.

When it’s 30 feet to the floor and your safety harness has a 31 foot tether. Holy cow! Thanks everyone for the comments and likes. Had no idea that such a short ignorant comment would spark so much discussion.

I am very happy this worker had fall protection, saving him from a critical injury. My husband worked for a company that did not provide fall protection in 1992. My husband fell 25 ft, crushing his heel as he fell feet first. He had reconstructive surgery to his foot/heel, followed by infection and two more surgeries. The company was found at fault by Cal- Osha. It took a year for my husband to heal enough to use crutches, and eventually, he was able to walk after two years of suffering. Afterward, he was followed by work assistance, landing a job with a great company, and worked his way up to Lab Manager. He worked there for 25 years. 🙏

I had a worker (intern actually) who fell off the edge of a roof. Luckily he was wearing a full body safety harness attached to a lifeline (11mm polyamide climbing rope) tied securely around a big boiler chimney around 100ft away. The lifeline arrested his fall and with my help, he managed to clamber back into the roof. Shaken, but very much alive. This is an example of a successful failure, something like Apollo 13.

the point about the guardrail isn't the problem. It obviously stopped his fall which was further than it should have been. The problem here is that the worker was too far to the side from the tie off point. This caused the fall to be much further than it should have been. Had the worker been tied off overhead or very close to the worker, the fall would have been a few feet.

A similar thing happened on one of my jobs. Carpenter was erecting safety railings around an elevator shaft opening. He somehow lost his balance and went in the hole but his body harness including the appropriate shock absorber arrested his fall. Rest of the crew hauled him back up and after a short break, he went right back to work. Without the harness, he would have had a 10 story fall with a bad ending. Lots of mistakes in this video - anchored off to a temporary railing, not anchored off overhead, no shock absorbing device, walkway not level and clear, etc.

In spite of all the mistakes made here, it looks like the tie off gear did help in this situation. Not enough information here on the status of the worker after the fall.

I’m a Deck Officer on board ships. It’s common practice for the ABs (ratings) to paint the hull while sitting at a makeshift platform, which is basically a wooden plank hanging out of the side of the vessel, tied with ropes. One time, the AB was painting, and the ropes broke, and he fell down. Luckily, he was wearing the safety harness. Otherwise, it would turn into a Man Overboard incident, which are really serious, and really deadly. The harness saved his life. Good man, that guy, Alfredo. Hope he’s well.

Among many problems others have noted, the lifeline did not include a shock/energy absorber. I hope the workers was ok.

40 years ago a skydiving friend was working a roofing job when he went over the edge, about 20 feet down. He credited his skydiving experience with his uninjured landing after doing the best PLF of his life. Totally freaked out his coworkers...

Rarely has 27 seconds felt so long and tense. Glad that he survived, but sorry about the minor injuries.

It's always easy to pick apart videos like this. The anchor point doesn't appear to be rated for 5000 lbs and the swing fall was more than a little hairy, but it appears to have worked. It probably hurt and he may have swung pretty hard into something, but he didn't appear to fall to the next level down. I worked construction in the 1980s. Falls were just accepted as part of the risk of the job. On two separate jobs I was on, one man died falling 32 feet to a concrete slab and one fell about 20 feet onto a pile of concrete demolition rubble with lots of rebar in it. He was actually tied off to the concrete beam he was jack hammering. Not the brightest bulb on the tree. He had some pretty bad permanent injuries but survived. We didn't ever have any full body harnesses or shock absorbing lanyards in those days, It was just a belt with 3 D rings on the hips a chain with a large open hook, and a poly rope. Great for positioning while building vertical concrete forms, not so good if you fall.

I’ve not fallen with my shock harness when I’m trimming all my coconut trees, but I recently learned something I was unaware of. Suspension trauma….turns out, if you have a successful deploy and capture, you’ve actually got something like about a 5-10 min window before the blood flow down your femoral arteries and into your extremities has slowed enough that clotting will start to occur. All kinds of lethal follows… So, depending on where you are when you fall, your safety gear may be nothing more than a delaying tactic if your not working smart (I don’t climb my trees anymore unless someone knows I’m doing it and is gonna check on me…)

I worked at a metal fabrication shop where my(at the time)brother-in-law was a floor manager. This shop makes buckets(scoops) for front end loaders and excavators, each has their own "shop" in separate parts of the building. One day he showed me camera footage from the night shift the night before. A fabricator was working on a VERY large excavator bucket which was being held up on it's "tiptoes" by the heavy duty winch mounted in the rafters. There was also SUPPOSED to be a couple pieces of steel welded between the bottom of the bucket and the steel floor plates to form kind of a stand for the bucket, but this guy hadn't done that, just the winch. He was working underneath the several ton bucket and scooted out when he was done. The split second he was clear the winch failed and dropped the HUGE bucket RIGHT where he had been a half second before.

DO NOT cut trees on a ladder with a chainsaw. My neighbor died like that cause the chainsaw got pinched in the tree and kicked him off the ladder. Just trying to save lives out here.

I was a Cannon operator onboard the 1st Death Star. The lack of guard rails was a huge problem for those working at their stations. We endured many "falls from height" on that project... 😉

Falling is never a problem. Impacting the ground at a high rate of speed is what gets you.

The safety equipment is only as good as the training and the person using it. Proper training and a desire to use the training is so important, especially in situations like this. Why are people so careless with their own lives? Hope dude is alright. Anyone know the outcome?

It’s good to see that Jesse and Walter are using fall protection.

When you wear a harness, make sure the leg straps are as high up as possible on your legs, and make sure they are tight. If you don’t do it yourself gravity will do it for you.

“I paid two bits to see somebody jump and I’m gonna see somebody jump!” Yosemite Sam

Truly one of the workers falling wearing fall protection of all times

I was one of the first responders to a construction site accident many years ago. It was during the initial stages in the construction of a multilevel parking garage. A crew of steelworkers was high above the ground positioning and affixing the steel I beams being lifted into place with a large crane. They put in just enough bolts to hold a few beams in place. I guess later on they would fill in the rest. A portion of the steel collapsed. The guys that died were attached to the steel with harnesses. They rode the steel over a hundred feet to the ground. The one steelworker who lived wasn't attached to the steel with an OSHA required harness. He fortunately landed on top of a concrete elevator shaft roof located on top of level 2 of the garage. Kind of ironic.

Most jobs done with a fall harness do not comply with OSHA requirements. This is one of those cases. Scaffolding? Not 5000 pounds. Tied off above? Nowhere above to tie off. Meeting OSHA requirements for fall protection would stop most jobs, including the one I do.

*a worker wearing falling protection falls* everyone: "omg he died" no

A co-worker told a joke, and he fell for it.

So the first rules of manual handling are: To survey the load, is it manageable by the amount of available workers in the available space and are they capable of the lift? Is the route of the carry clear and easy for the workers to use? Are there any restrictions/trip hazards/level changes in the route? I think the answer to all of these questions in this case was no. Also the temporary scaffolding boards he was working from were an accident waiting to happen. Should have put some proper scaff up with a guardrail and used some sort of mechanical assistance with the lift via a chainfall or somesuch similar. Definitely avoidable at every opportunity. Workers need to know where their limits end.

"Do you think the lanyard point should be closer? Have a shorter line? Maybe a retractable?" "No. Why would you need that? It's going to cost more. Nothings going to happen. They'll be fine"

Handrails are NEVER to be used to tie off fall protection devices. The tie off point must be able to withstand 5k of force. NO serious training at this plant such as we do in the oilfield.

2 things to consider, fall factor and pendulum effect. I'm glad someone has wrote below he survived with minor injuries.

Happy he had his fall protection on. That is terrifying.

Bloody hell he went quite a distance!

I've had a friend who knew a worker who died wearing fall protection. He had the proper tie-off point, but the gear was faulty even with it being overhauled the same day, so he went splat off the rafter. Instant death. This was directly next to him while at work too.

Brings back a memory. I was on the highline about 60 feet off the ground with my welder when my foot slipped off the beam I was standing on. I had a 6' lanyard and was anchored to a rat line and didn't get injured but my welder was freaking out!

Only time I wore that stuff was painting the masts on my first ship. 185 ft above the waterline and 120 ft above the flight deck walking on scaffolding!

If they’d have put scaffolding as handrail / guardrail behind the worker on the open side of the pit this wouldn’t have happened . That’s how it would be done in the Uk and Europe by law and someone would have had a serious ass kicking from the health and safety for this. Also he should have been wearing a restraining harness with a shorter lanyard to keep him away from the edge and reduce the falling distance in the event of a fall. He’s also clipped onto handrail that they are in the process of removing so the whole area should have been scaffolded out properly to provide railings / guardrails to replace the handrail being removed to stop people being able to go near the pit and the scaffolding needs to be strong enough to clip the workers lanyards onto near the pit and all scaffold boards need to be fastened down to avoid movement and trips that result in falls like this. Hope the guy was ok.

First mistake connecting to a guardrail that will hold 550 newtons, a rated anchor should be able to hold 15000 newtons, If that was a straight drop the guardrail would have let go. 2nd ,using an inertia reel at 90 degrees to the anchor, it should be above or directly behind at no more that a 39 degree angle. This shows importance of training. Im glad he is ok, this could have been much much worse

Safety lady showing this video in our class- “what mistake did he make here?” Random lady- “He fell” Entire room 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

In France we have a slight nuance between retention system and anti fall. Anti fall requires 3.5m depth so that elements can deploy and absorb. Chock absorbers may add 2m more. If you dont have 3.5m below you must use fall retention. If your feet slip, it shall keep you at your altitude and must prevent your head ( after fall ) going below your feet ( before ). Whats shown here does not strictly comply to french security. Even if he was not enjured, i have been trained to find safer ways to anchor.

Anybody who teaches working at heights, this is a perfect example of why to wear it.

It looks as if the worker is secured to an SRL. He's very lucky the guardrail held since they aren't typically designed for fall arrest systems. That said, all mistakes aside, it likely saved his life.

Wild how quickly things can turn. Glad to hear he survived.

And that is why you wear your safety gear! Good stuff.

When you’re working at a height like that, it’s obviously cumbersome with all that equipment. However, if you’re struggling, you need to stop and figure out a way where you will not struggle but execute the task without any risk.

Can't believe this is on youtube. I've seen this video so many times as part of our operating experience. Goose was a good one, just had a bad day that day. RIP charles, all of us on the head crew, (reactor services) miss ya.

By Gods grace I hope the equipment worked great.

I used to work for a company fitting TV aerials and satellite dishes. They were hot on H&S - we were properly trained, had all the kit and they used to check on us regularly, but some of the old school fitters just never used their fall arrest stuff. One day, an employee fell headfirst off a bungalow roof and ended up in a coma. When he woke he had life limiting brain damage. His family took the company to court for compensation but got nothing in the end as he'd completed the pre-job safety check and signed it off, but actually not bothered to use any safety kit at all. When the Health and Safety executive checked previous jobs, he'd either not bothered or had likely just put his harness on to make it look like he was using it (there were no tie-in holes in the brickwork). The only ones where he'd used it were the ones on the days booked for random checks.

Your #1 job is to go home at the end of your shift.

He took the saying "hanging by a thread" too seriously

Safety first! 😷

It’s crazy how quick these things happen

He swung the distance he was from the tie off, and into whatever down below at speed. Imagine 15feet of body weight gaining momentum in a swinging arc. He definitely received damage below. Maybe not fatal, but he out of work for awhile. Not to mention if the distance between floors is 15~20 ft and his tie off is 15 feet away, he hits the deck within 7ft away from where he fell (straight down line) and then back towards tie off. Chances are hit hit the deck somewhere between straight down from fall point, and back towards tie-off IF…….15ft. If 20ft fall, he’s going to be swinging and hitting deck below tie-off if he’s over 5ft tall. Remember fall softener doesn’t work on linear falls because it’s not sudden enough of a stop that never happens. They’re designed for straight down drops to deploy properly (the fall softener). Fall softeners also add apx 5ft to the fall from lanyard to lifeline when deployed. The only reel tie offs in this scenario that would have stopped the fall quickly and with minor damage, would be TWO reels, one each side to eliminate swing and drop distance. And that set-up would require a double lanyard on safety harness.

3 things that could have prevented his fall, 1: he should have been standing at the end of the guard rail he was carrying not next to it, and 2: the helper on the other end should have taken his time trying to remove the rail and 3: the platform he was standing on should have been one flat surface not 2 different heights. Just a few things I noticed.

Give that man a refreshing Bud Lite.

I occasionally had to wear fall protection and other ppe at the company I used to work at. We were “exempt” from certain other osha regulations because the facility manufactures advanced systems for military satellites and thus we had a pass to do whatever we wanted. If an osha guy showed up and started doing a safety audit, a few phone calls would be made and he would quickly leave after apologizing for the inconvenience. The safety factor for everything was at least doubled so there was little risk of an accident, (ex. we had 20 ton overhead cranes that were proof loaded to that, but we weren’t allowed to lift more than 10) but I’ll never forget standing under an enormous weldment and taking photos of it while it was proofloaded with 8,000 lbs. It was engineered and built to safely support 16,000, but holy moly watching it flex will make anyone pucker.

Fantastic. So glad this place uses the safety rigging.

A yoyo might've helped. Hope he wasn't hurt too bad.

Palpatine?

Good for him wearing his PPE correctly, we all miss a step, and it wasn't his last, enjoy your career going ahead friend! 👍🏽

What a safety legend

I at least try to finish my work befor i leave (I hope he is okay)

Worker: I had a little fall Boss: will you be in tomorrow

One decision away from having your fall uploaded to LiveLeak instead of KZfaq

I fell off an MD11 tail wearing a harness. Didn't hurt a bit, those things do their job. However I wouldn't have fallen if it wasn't for that stupid inertia reel. Never used one since.

Can someone explain the situation and context?. Like what he is doing/repairing/assembling? Where he fell down and how deep? I hope he survived.

Remember kids, fall prevention is better than fall arrest

Yep this is the most accurate description I have seen in a title. He did fall.

Tying off to the guardrail has very little to do with anything here. He shouldn't have had such a long lanyard and he should have been tied off closer to where he was working, not 10 feet away so he swings like a wrecking ball when he falls. I usually have 2 lanyards so I can switch tie-off positions safely.

He’s standing on the rope that’s connected to the piece they’re taking out. When they start moving it. It pulls under his right foot. He takes a small step back reacting to it. Loses balance. Fall.

Awesome, glad to see it worked. I cant tell by video, but by other comments on here it worked. So much to be said for OSHA and safety programs for all workers, not just Union.

Not the best ratio at waist height. But at least he was wearing it and tethered to a secure anchor point.

The site manager MADE me wear a safety harness with a 6ft lanyard while stood on a platform 4ft of the ground, when I pointed out this folly he waved a piece of paper at me I and just said "Box tick, all that matters".

Thank God, always health and safety first. If you're in a situation you know is unsafe don't do it even if you get sacked. It's better to go home alive and uninjured or not crippled than wait for your loved ones to come to a mortuary too recognise you and claim you as a family member.

Osha revised statement says that guardrail can be used on the centre ring for fall restriction not arrest

I worked on swing stagings for 40 years. Luckily no falls. There’s a saying for people who work up high, “ It’s not the fall that hurts….it’s the sudden stop.”

Oh here come all the safety police with their 2 cents 😂

When I got into the trades, in the 80's, fall restraint wasn't a thing...I worked for 30 plus years on structures roofs, balconies, side walls, scaffolding, Pump jacks, Ladders, jacks and picks...Never wore fall restraint even once...Meh, lucky I guess...Went off a couple roofs had pump jacks collapse 40 feet up...We did some real HAIRY rigs...:)... I know men that have been crippled or died, where fall restraint would have helped...Men have been going without fall protection for CENTURIES...Work smart...

Its a good thing he had his anchor in, osha loves proper fall protection

I have to get on my roof several times each year to clean leaves out of my gutters because there are some really big and leafy trees in front of my house. I've developed a safety routing for my gutter cleaning. I wear a basic rock climbing harness as well as a chest harness for rope rescue work. When I was younger, I learned how to rock climb with the Boy Scouts, and I still use the rope rigging skills that I learned as a teenager when I started outdoor climbing. I tie 2 separate pieces of thick webbing around my big brick chimney with water knots. I then take a climbing rope that I have, tie a figure 8 on a bite in the middle, and clip the loop to the webbing with 2 locking carabiners for redundancy. This is overkill, but it doesn't really require extra effort to tie in with 2 lines of webbing and use an extra carabiner. That gives me 2 strands of ripe that I run down my roof. I tie barrel stopper knots on both strands that fall a few feet below the edge of the roof. I then clip 2 separate ascender devices to my harness with carabiners, and each ascender gets attached to a separate strand of the rope. One goes right on the belay loop of my harness, and I use a short prusik loop through the hard points of my harness that then goes up through a loop on my chest harness and clips up higher with a carabiner. That way, if I fall, the fact that one ascender is locked to both my main harness and my chest harness should keep me upright. The ascenders automatically take up slack as I go up the roof, and I have to push on the release levers to give myself more slack when I descend down the roof. This way, I never work with more than a couple feet of slack as I go to the edge of my roof to clean out my gutters. I should mention that I live in the city, and my house is 3 stories. So falling off the roof would be fatal. My uncle has done all kinds of construction on his own house over the years, and a few years ago he accidentally stepped off the edge of some scaffolding while repointing brick on his house. He wasn't tied in, and he had a nasty fall and broke his arm. I think he was just maybe 9 feet off the ground (3 meters or so), and it think he was otherwise OK. You just cannot take safety for granted. You have to be very thoughtful about safety any time you work on a ladder or scaffolding or high off the ground where there's any risk of falling.

Would be much better with sound effects

This could have been avoided if he had worn a high visibility vest.

KZfaq really gave me a 30 sec ad for a 30 sec video

Just yesterday I saw a construction worker walking along the edge of a building without any safety net. It was approximately the 10th floor. It was 40 degrees Celsius outside and the sun was shining brightly. Damn!

Above each hatch on a KC-135 is a bag with a rope in it. It's there so you can get out of the plane if there are no lifts or ladders around. Every once in a while you would check them by letting the rope out and sliding down it. We had a guy just grab the end and just jump out. The catch is the ropes are twice as long as the height. Yes we laughed at him as we took him to the hospital for his broken ankle.

IDK why this is in my feeds, but those guys are clueless. Hope he made it.

Bruh.. This is nothing compared to me... I FALL in love without having a harness and look at me now, questioning my life choices 🤣🤣

He waited an entire life for this. Yet could be fatal.

I've worked with colleagues that pushed me over the edge 😮

When I worked on building a concrete grain elevator back in 1978, we never had fall protection. We used common sense and stayed away from the edge.

This was at the plant I work at. He survived. Minor injuries. All of our fall protection gear was removed completely and are told to pay attention instead.

Here’s wishing his nuts a speedy recovery.

??

30 seconds too long.

i love how no one seems to worried for him/her

Please note the position of the lanyard and the tie off position. Working From Heights tells you what device you need for the potential situation you have. in this case, the ledge he is standing on is insufficient to provide Travel Restraint. He/She needs an above the Opening engineered tie-off point. This way a Fall Restraint is necessary. Which you can clearly see, the worker never used. The worker exposes him/her self of a fall potential greater than the allowed distance for the Harness to catch you safely. OHSA will nail the Worker, the Supervisor, and the Owner for failing to provide proper training, and using proper Fall Protection. Obviously the Supervisor failed miserably in SAFE WORK checks before the Worker entered the work area. The Worker though doesn't get off scot free either.

poor guy couldn t see, hear, sweat, handle materials, or move properly with all the safety gear he had on

Despite all attempts to create a safe working environment for all workers, along the way Saftey provisions have actually made workers less careful due to these provisions leading to more accidents. I bet you without that harness he would not have fallen, if he did, he is not meant to be working at heights lol

the harness is a fall arrestor. it's designed to help slow down the fall and hopefully stop it. the fall protection was the railing. I'm just glad this person was not seriously injured.

when you fall off the map in call of duty and see the map above you from underneath

I worked in the roofing business for about three years. After moving on to a new career, I found out that OHSA requires roofing workers to use fall protection. Oops.