Check your step ladders.. please

Ray next door is now laid up poorly after the bottom rung on his wooden step ladder broke.
Not to bad you may think but it threw him off balance and he hit the garden wooden furniture a tad awful.
The result is extreme pain in the rib area and he can hardly move and will be laid up for about six weeks.
Seems they may have to cancel the holiday to Turkey as well.

I have no intention of teaching H & S to any of my good friends here on GC but as an ex H & S champion it is still in my ego to bring any risks to your attention.
Thanks for listening guys.. and please be careful out there
robert

 

I know a fair few people who have had near missus or actual nasty accidents involving ladders. The worst of which was when my neighbour was painting the outside of the frame of an upstairs window. Somehow he fell (he can't remember how come). As if it is not bad enough that he fell from the upstairs window, he somehow managed to go through it first (considering he was outside the house already, that is pretty clever). The poor lad severely lacerated his legs before flipping upside down and falling head first. Lucky (although lucky is not the best word for it) for him he managed to grab the ladder on the way down, flipping himself the right way up again and dislocating his shoulder in the process, before landing on his feet and shattering both ankles and one leg. As if all that is not bad enough, we are not talking about a young man made of rubber, we are talking a bloke in his seventies. Nobody was in at his house or our house at the time, which meant potentially he could have laid their for hours before being found. Fortunately someone must have seen it happen because by the time my wife arrived home, the poor bloke was being wheeled away by the ambulance crew.

Miraculously, he has made a full recovery, but it took him a couple of years before he could walk properly again.

 

Thanks for posting clueless.
The company I worked for before I retired banned us from using ladders.
Any work required at height would have to involve scaffolding.
It was a bit of a pain when you needed to do something yesterday...
robert

 

One time we had some roof work done and the roofers used scaffolding. We rent our house which means that the landlord is never in too much of a hurry to do repairs. They left the scaffolding in place for weeks. I phoned the landlord several times to ask him to get his lads to move it, but they were in no hurry. Local kids started using it as a climbing frame and I told him this. Fearing for the safety of the kids, I phoned the landlord and politely reminded him that any compensation claims or personal injury on his property would be his problem, as he is the owner of the property. The scaffold was gone by the next day.

 

Believe me. If you use a registered scaffolding you would want it removed ASAP... it costs both arms and a legs these days..
robert

 

Hope he gets well soon and I bet he's pig sick about the holiday

I wish I'd checked out a pair 20 years ago before they collapsed under me resulting in four years off work because of a back injury:o

 

A good post, Im actually just changing the plataform steps I work off for hedge cutting in favour of a set of Henchman podium steps, the self leveling feature will save balancing on one leg and leaning to the right etc. If i was watching someone else Id probably be horified but when its you you think your imune...... Ive had the steps overbalance a few times before though although thankfully Ive never injured myself.

The henchamn platform step Im getting allow the legs to level so virtually zero chance of overbalancing.

Heres what ive bought, The model I chose is the high step midi)

http://www.henchman-podium-steps.co.uk/product/safe-working-at-height/Henchman-Podium-Steps.jsf

Of course some jobs do still require ladders, Painting this dormer window was safer than it looked although definately not health and safety compliant!!! Probably should have had a scafold in but a lot of money for two part days of painting work.

 

Just to add a slightly humorous twist to a very serious topic, I can't resist relaying something I saw once. Two tree surgeons were working at a house opposite the bus stop I used to wait at to go to work. One was round the back so I couldn't really him see him (and he couldn't really see his colleague). The other was up a ladder, in the tree in clear view from my vantage point. The ladder slipped and fell down. The tree surgeon was lucky in that he grabbed hold of a suitably strong branch and just dangled for a few seconds. He managed to find his footing and climbed down in one piece, then looked around with an embarrassed expression to see if anybody saw it

 

You do see some stupid things when it comes to erecting ladders:dh: Lucky chappie methinks:hehe:

 

That is an idiotic instance. My neighbour is a road contractor. He never leaves a digger with the bucket off the ground, in case the hydraulics fail. I worked a large part of my life in the building industry, working off ladders. In one instance, 40 feet up a building painting windows. I've often worked off a scaffold plank supported by two ladders and ladder brackets.

 

And your point is?

It may be an "idiotic instance" but as you can see people do do it.

 

Thanks for finding this picture John. I can remember it a few years back as a good example during one the many H&S days I attended when I was the teams H&S champion. One of the most satisfying things we as a group achieved was rising £2000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Make you feel good..
robert