12.12.2012

Biggest ladder idiot

The UK’s Ladder Association has announced the winner of its Idiots on Ladders campaign.

The campaign, or competition to find the biggest ladder idiot in the UK began in September invited submissions from the public – the results were then open to a vote. The aim was to shame dangerous ladder users into changing their ways.

The clear winner, with over 30 percent of the vote from the 38 photographs submitted, showed a man reaching up to the top of a chimney with a gaping fall directly below him. Not only could the fall have killed him, but one commenter pointed out that his ladder still did not reach high enough to keep him from stretching upwards.
Please register to see all images

The Ladder Association's ladder idiot of the year winner

To top the situation off, he also had a bucket wedged between the ladder and the wall it was resting against. The Ladder Association is now looking into the background of the picture in an attempt to identify the man and offer him the training he obviously needs, assuming he has survived to benefit from it.

In second place came a picture taken earlier this year, showing a gardener with one foot on the rung of his ladder and the other on a tree branch, while he brandished a chainsaw at the tree’s other branches without protective clothing or a harness. The picture originally came from a news story in the Lincolnshire Echo, which reported that he was fined a total of £6,000 for his ladder idiocy.

Cameron Clow, chairman of the Ladder Association, said: “This competition was all about raising awareness and as such it was run alongside the Ladder Exchange, which offers people and businesses the chance to trade in unsafe ladders for new, compliant ones. We wanted to show together two of the biggest dangers in the workplace – people using their ladders in an unsafe way, and people using equipment that is unfit for purpose.

The completed Idiots on Ladders album can be found on the Ladder Association Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ladderassociation