Fall Protection

I hate ladders.

As someone who frequently visits facilities for rooftop audits, I can safely say that ladders are more difficult to use than rooftop stairs. They make a day of inspecting facilities feel that much longer.

Whenever I deliver a training class to a group of workers for whom I’m also serving as a safety consultant, I explain that there are two things I need to do: 1) Keep them safe and 2) Keep the company compliant.

We have had this product available for a while, but have never featured it properly.  KeeGuard Metal Roof Top Railings are designed to protect workers who are operating around a roof edge on a metal building.  The use of S-5! clips and connectors, means that the railing system will not...

If your company requires employees to work above 4’ in general industry and above 6’ in construction, it is important that you have a policy in place for working at heights.  While 4’ and 6’ might not seem all that high, people have died or suffered serious injuries when falling from...

Discovery Channel has a new show called Prototype This.  This year they featured fall protection by creating a prototype of a wearable airbag.  I love how the guys says, I dont know why this shouldnt be on the market and the guy who is working is wrapped in something the size of a small...

No one would want to get on an airplane and hear: "Well folks, we got about half way through the safety inspection and decided that was good enough. Now sit back and enjoy the flight." You need to provide total protection for the sake of the person who is working at heights. Industrial safety...

Mezzanines in the workplace pose a great risk to employees. Though they are useful and often necessary for storage, the creation of additional fall hazards must not be overlooked. If you ever need to access an elevated platform, and that platform is more than 48" high, that perimeter must be...

The installation of horizontal lifelines requires professionals who understand both the surface they are mounting to and the components of the lifeline system. Many of the other safety systems that we sell can be installed by the end user, but a horizontal lifeline is different. In order to...

For HVAC technicians, working on rooftops presents inherent risks, even in optimal conditions. These risks are magnified when the roof in question is pitched.

With a sloped roof, it’s hard to find a stable working surface. Add wet or winter conditions to that and you’ve magnified the...

Sometimes it's obvious: you're about to work on a scaffold, at the edge of a roof, or on a piece of equipment fifteen feet high and you know instinctively that guard rails are needed.

Other times, it's not so simple. Not because safety railing wouldn't be an intuitive solution, but...

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles… what do they all have in common?  Someone has to work on top of them for a living.

This means that someone is working at height, is exposed to risk, and needs to be protected.

The edge is not the only danger on your sloped roof.

Every time you send someone on your roof to perform maintenance or an inspection, you expose them to various slips, trips, and falls. Slips, trips, and falls were the second leading cause of workplace fatalities in 2021 and 2020, according...

Simplified Safety welcomes William Haflidson from AiX Safety as a new guest blogger. William is located in Ontario, Canada and will be providing insights to health and safety issues in Canada.

Unfortunately fall injuries happen in almost all types of workplaces. Falls are the number two...

We spend a good deal of time discussing equipment in this blog, from fall protection to work platforms to scaffolding and lifts. Notice, however, the title of this blog post - specifically the word “habits”. In the end, it’s often our behavior at work that contributes to incidents,...

Fall protection rules can seem complicated because every situation is different.

Maintenance is a critical aspect of dealership operations, and one of the most frequent maintenance tasks is the oil change. This task requires getting underneath the vehicle.

One of the most common ways to do that is by using a pit. This allows the mechanic to access the belly of the vehicle...

There’s a lot that goes on at your loading dock. Loading, unloading… well I guess that’s mostly it. 

However, loading docks present a fall hazard that, while obvious, is often overlooked due to the lack of understanding on how to best protect it while not inhibiting your...

"It was just a freak accident."

"There was no way we could have seen that coming!

If you haven’t heard something like this, spend a little time doing incident investigation in an occupational setting.  Trust me, it won’t take long.  Statements like these perpetuate the belief that accidents...

This safety guardrail was installed on the set of the production of The Conduct of Life at Texas A&M University. The railing was mounted on the stage to prevent the performers from falling over the edge. The railing performed both an aesthetic and functional purpose. Justin M., the...

The recent accident in Westwood, MA regarding the fall of a worker clearing snow from the roof of a business, underscores just how dangerous this job can be.  In this particular instance, the worker fell through a skylight and landed on the ground 25’ below. In light of the situation,...

The Daily Commercial News and Construction Record has written a great article that addresses fall arrest suspension trauma.

The article deals with several issues concerning suspension trauma.  It starts by describing the basic problem with fall arrest, and that is that stopping the fall is only...

Every year workers die because they fall from unprotected scaffolds. This WorkSafe BC video covers the basics of fall protection on scaffolding.

In January 2021, a 22-car derailment occurred in New Brunswick because a key component caused a coupler to fail. This caused an adjacent highway to be closed for 5 days, especially when eight of the cars carried hazardous materials.

There are many reasons why derailments can happen. These...