Shortcuts with ladders, don’t be a statistic!

One of our officers offended a local builder recently when she refused to climb a ladder to inspect the roof timbers. What’s the problem he asked, it’s perfectly safe?!

Forever the sceptic, our officer commented that she hadn’t noticed this additional product advertised in the latest Stanley catalogue, particularly the bevelled edge model!

Reluctantly the builder moved the ladder to another location where it was level, tied it off at the top, and ensured it extended at least 3 rungs above the step off point to the roof.

Was the officer being unreasonable or over-cautious?

For the answer you only need to look at the Health & Safety Executive statistics. Figures available for 2015/16 reported that there were 144 fatalities at work. Of those, over a quarter (37) were as a result of falling from heights, of which 18 deaths were on a construction site.

In addition there were 37,000 non-fatal reported injuries from falls from height.

This resulted in an average time off work of 9.4 days per person, nearly 350,000 days lost in a year.

In real terms this means that in a working week, there were 1,350 people off work every day as a result of falling from height.

Our officer didn’t want to be the 1,351st, and you shouldn’t be that statistic either.

Further information

Safe use of ladders and stepladders

Are you a small builder?

Kinds of accident in Great Britain 2016