At 12:39 PM 12/17/02 -0500, sparks@apk.net wrote:
>If you fall several feet while hooked to a positioning lanyard, you will
>almost
>certainly be seriously injured or killed. If that lanyard is hooked to only
>one hip, as in the scenario described by below by Pete, the latter
>possibility
>is greatly increased. Positioning lanyards are for fall PREVENTION not fall
>arrest. The arresting forces on a lanyard without a shock-absorbing element
>are huge -- thousands of pounds for a 200lb person in 6 foot fall -- and
>if you
>are not killed immediately, you will likely suffocate waiting for rescue
>as you
>dangle from one side of your waist with your diaphragm compressed. It will
>also
>be much more difficult for rescuers to get you positioned for descent from
>that
>position.
I agree that two fall-arrest lanyards, or a y-lanyard, are preferable to
what I described, but I think this disaster scenario is much
exaggerated. My positioning lanyard is only about 4 feet long. It is not
plausible that I could be killed by the sudden stop at the end of a 4-foot
fall, with the stop impact distributed by a wide padded belt and full-body
harness. If that were the case, everyone who has ever fallen 4 feet onto a
hard surface would have been killed. Bruises yes, but dead, no.
73, Pete N4ZR
Sometimes a tower is just a tower
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