Outrageous safety rules at work

[Jefpainthorse]

Not saying where I work b.c I might get in trouble but our safety rules are nuts . Today I almost got a one and done for standing on an edge with a ten foot drop without a safety harness. But I can climb a tower crane 1,119 feet in the air while leaning over a rail with nothing below me besides a long fall and ground while changing a light. Does anyone else think this is crazy or it just me ?

if your crane walkway (tower crane I assume from your narrative) has a safety rail you dont need a harness and landyard. I worked in between out safety deptartment and the work force for several years. Some of the safety people over do what they think we need to do... because they dont under stand how the rule relates to the regulation that governs it.
FALL restraint is a good thing. We just don't do a very good job of it in the USA. The safety engineer reads the reg... "looks" at what they do in Europe or Canada, then gets bamboozeled by the Salesman who wants to sell a lot of new gear.

OSHA... good and bad. Lot's of rules...little enforcement other than closing the gate after the horse is out. It takes a long time and multiple occurances of the SAME accident to get a reg added. We do some of that to ourselfs when we cheat a rule or good sense and get bit.

 

[cptnhowdy138]

The thing that pi$$es me off is the person who caught me was caught in a panel flipping breakers one day and nobody said anything to him. Nobody besides electricians are allowed to be in a panel room and even then only a journeyman electrician is the only person that can flip a breaker. This guy is not an electrician probably doesnt know the first thing about electricity besides plugging something into an outlet.

 

[cptnhowdy138]

Yea I know I dont need a harness and lanyard when I go on the crane except when I ride out on the jib. What im saying is im pretty sure I can survive a ten foot fall but not a 1000ft fall

 

[dennishoddy]

You can moist likely survive a suspension in a fall arrest system for about 20-30 minutes. After that you will die from lack of circulation.
But you will die immediatly from the fall, so what is your choice?

There are new fall arrest systems coming that will allow the person in the fall arrest to put their foot in a loop, taking the pressure off of the rest of the fall arrest system.

Technology will eventually improve every safety requirment.

 

[vvvvvvv]

 

[AllOut]

You have no comprehension of how strict safety rules are until youve worked on offshore drilling platforms off the coast of CA. You couldnt sneeze without a JSA.

I would.... I work for an oil company

Anyway, there is more to it then what everyone has mentioned. Most all companies have a safety rating which is set by recordable incident rates, precautions, safety training etc. A lot of companies won't work with any company that has a rating under a certain point. Meaning you could be the best company around at what u do but the company you bid a job for won't even look at you because your safety rating is to low. It's a big deal in construction and real big in the oil industry which I'm in.
The biggest problem I have with it is we have all these HS&E people who make all these unneccissary rules and policies to try and justify their jobs. Plus we get a bunch of pencil pushing idiots up front who have never worked anywhere but behind the desk trying to tell us how we can and can't do our job. None of these guys could do our jobs but they think they know better. What gets me is they come out and tell us every way we CAN'T do our jobs but never tell us how we can. When we ask them how are we supposed to do this, they just say we don't know figure it out... But don't do it this way.

 

[AKguy1985]

my job has a motto: Nothing we do is worth getting hurt.


then the fine print: Except you better come to work in a blizzard.

 

[Souperphly]

sounds like us, pres is from guthrie and shop mgr from asher if their trucks are in the lot yours better be too.

 

[Bootleggn]

Hard hat, hard hat tether, reflective vest, harness, tool lanyards, safety glasses, steel toe boots. Even had to buy new ladders that still have the stickers intact for them to inspect. Not to mention the fiasco with extension cords. I think I know where your working..

 

[grizzly97]

I remember one job I worked on, back when I was a glazer, and the only guy that got hurt was an OSHA safety officer (if that's the right term). He was riding on the front of a fork lift in the parking lot, it hit a bump and knocked him off, and he got run over, crushing his ankle. The irony is priceless!