16.02.2009

Death Wish 49

Today’s death wish example was sent to us from Scotland, it must rate of one of the very worst examples of unsafe work at height. It occurred, we understand, last week in the capital – Edinburgh, three men working on an advertising hoarding.
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What have we here?

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Three men putting up or taking down an advertising message

The first stupidity is that the men at the bottom of the hoarding are using ladders that are unsuitable for the job at hand. Secondly they clearly have no idea on the safe use of those ladder and have them set up at an angle that common sense alone screams is wrong and as the job requires the men to use both hands, the use of such ladders contravenes the Work At Height Regulations.

Thirdly they have the feet of the ladders set up in a busy street, where they can be hit by passing traffic - no attempt has been made to cordon them off.
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Down comes the panel, look at the man at the top

Fourthly the job entails the removal or installation of large panels the handling of such panels from a ladder adds further to the risk.

On top of the above points the third man has used a longer ladder to reach the top of the hoarding from the back, and is balancing himself on the top of the sign while reaching over to do his part of the job.
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There goes that panel

Amazingly all three men are wearing their Hi-Viz jackets, seems that they may well have their priorities wrong?

A suitable powered platform would not only have been safer, but it would also have done the job far faster with one less person.