No Safe Belt = Bad Day

That lift operator just lost his job. Luckily he can put "experienced catapult operator" on his resume now

" Not hang from your groin area." I hope never hang from my groinus.

And do NOT have your leg straps loose. We’re not talking tourniquet tight, but those leg straps should not have more than a couple of fingers of play — more than that and one of your “beans might fall through the grill,” so to speak. Saw two examples in a fall protection class: one of a testicular de-gloving, and one of a ruptured scrotum. Just had my neck hairs stand on end thinking about it. I need some eye / soul wash. To the puppies and kids vids!!

If this ever happens on a jobsite and the person has been hanging for more than a few minutes, please call 911 and make sure to tell anyone who'll listen that the call involves a "suspension injury". It sure would suck to survive the fall only to die of a massive stroke or embolism as soon as you get rescued.

Those dudes will tell the tale a few octaves higher

For those of you who have had the "pleasure" of working in an articulated boom lift (or any lift for that matter), any minor changes in elevation at the base are massively amplified at the top of the boom. Rolling off or on a 3/4" sheet of ply can mean several feet (yards on the bigger lifts) of movement at the top. Not for the faint of heart, or people prone to motion sickness/vertigo.

Another issue with many of the cheaper harnesses is no fall arrestor- they just have cow tails and hooks, the shock load in a fall is immense and can cause serious injury.

And this is why you have a mandatory “Rescue plan, in your method statement” also, a guy on the ground who can work the controls to lower those trapped dangling from the platform 🤷‍♂️

I am a safety inspector from the Netherlands and we always tell people to buy some “trauma straps”, it are simples thing but that loop that you can put your feet in are lifesavers. Please buy them, it will save you.

How on earth did they manage that in the middle of an open parking lot, safety starts by keeping the stupids off the controls.

Had a salesmen get our manager to buy us the butt strap type by making the manager hang from the crappy harness for 10 minutes. While he described the advantages

Youve got about 10 to 20 mins of hang time before compartment syndrome seriously threatens your life. Even after youre brought down, lying flat can cause the stagnant/toxic blood in your legs to flow back into your heart, overloading it and causing death. Rescue quickly and keep them upright.

They also have some with foot stirrups that you can use to prevent the leg tourniquet.

My harness has lanyards that come out the sides so you can stand on them and take the blood off your legs for a second or two. Pretty cool

I have a colleague who doesn't use a harness because "I'll just jump out when it falls and be fine" I hope I'm not there the day it happens

So, my scaffolding teacher taught me to keep several small leader lines on your harness belt(looped up), you have two of them where you loop them on your lanyard and use them as stirrups to place the weight on your feet intermittently so you don’t keep circulation cut off to your legs. I wish there was a video, or instructions because it is really genius. Thankful I never had to use them. He also showed us how to use 2 loops of rope to use as self tensioning steps for climbing up a rope. Really cool stuff. One of the coolest classes I ever took.

Camerawork like this makes me wish that not all cameramen are invincible

Gives the saying "strung up by the nuts" new meaning!

They make some that have loops for your feet so you can distribute your weight.

What’s worse than looking stupid crashing a lift in the middle of an empty lot? Losing your fucking legs due to lack of blood circulation.