Scaffolds and Online OSHA Training Examines Reaching Safe Heights

In July 2010, two employees were working on a pump jack scaffold doing roofing work in Austin, Texas. The scaffold became overloaded and broke. The employees fell 12 feet to the ground, resulting in one fatality and one serious injury.

Falling in Orange Park Florida

Another unfortunate and possibly avoidable incident occurred just a month later in the quiet suburbs of Orange Park, Florida. A supervisor climbed up the frame of a 45-foot high tubular welding frame scaffold to check on an employee who was sandblasting inside a stack at a local steam plant. The scaffold was not equipped with guardrails and there was no access ladder. After talking to the employee, the supervisor either fell from the unguarded platform or fell while climbing down the scaffold end frame, resulting in his death. There were no witnesses to the fall.

Safety Training Importance

By examining these terrible workplace and worksite events, it is the hope for all OSHA safety training facilitators, and safety and health professionals in the business of offering education to these lofty workers in America, that these incidents can be reduced. The total elimination of all scaffolding injuries will never completely be at zero, as this would mean that we either evolved with wings or 20 feet tall and the need for scaffolding is reduced and greatly.

OSHA’s 1971 Scaffold Standard

Cases like these remind us all that the danger of working on scaffolding is very real. Despite OSHA’s 1971 scaffold standard, 84 construction workers died from falls from scaffold staging in 2008. What can be done to reduce this number this year? Please have a look below at a few of the reaching safely while on scaffolding requirements.

·         Make Certain Platforms for Scaffolding Are on Secure Level Ground

·         Space Between Planks and Platform Uprights Cannot be More Than 1Inch

·         Guardrails and Safety Harnesses Inspections Before Strapping In and Going Up!

About the Author

Scott Johnson, co-founder of Online OSHA Safety Training, guides the flow of the site as well as the employees that make up this spectacular safety training resource. Scott also makes certain that everything is in order, both online and in the real world. An avid fisherman, Scott spends what little time he has away from Online OSHA Safety Training chasing Walleye and Pike on the Winnipeg River.

Scott has also been awarded with multiple accomplishments in his years as a teacher. His experience as a former production supervisor for a power supply company has created an open-minded and open-hearted Vice President, whose door is perpetually open for any situation.