[CQ-Contest] Tower Safety

[Doug Renwick]

Ed,
Thanks for reinforcing the point that a full body harness may not be saving
tower climber lives. I agree, lets hear of where a full body harness saved a
life and importantly the circumstances. When this same topic came up some
time ago I asked the same question and got no replies. There must be data
some where with the professional tower climbers.

To balance that, let's also hear where wearing a full body harness did not
save a life.
I subscribe to the Wireless Estimator where tower fatalities are discussed.
I don't have the figures but I would say these fatalities are non harness
issues because of the government regulations requiring the wearing of safety
equipment. Failure to stay connected to the tower while working on a tower
is not a harness issue. 

The second question should be how many lives are lost while in the process
of climbing as compared to lives lost while working on the tower. If the
tower collapses while in the climbing process would a full body harness save
you?

I know one case where the climber dropped all the guy lines and at above the
70 foot level, an extension of the tower top went over and he fell to his
death. A full body harness would not have saved him. I ended up buying that
tower and taking it down.

I bet that many more lives are lost involving ladders. Sure more people
climb ladders than towers. So where is the outcry?

Some of the comments are just virtue signalling. Let's dig deep to find the
truth as revelling as it may be.

Doug

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein 

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Edward Sawyer
Sent: November-20-19 8:31 AM
To: Kevan Nason; CQ Contest
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower Safety

Hello Kevan.  Thanks for your comments.  To be clear, the items I discussed
were not "brought up by me".  They were items mentioned by N3BB that I
stated were not at all related to the "safety improvement conclusion" of
hanging up an older belt in favor of a harness.

As a pilot, tower climber, and Electronics Business owner involved in
Failure Analysis, it serves no purpose for people to say "I did this and
therefore I must be safer" when what they did doesn't tie to the incidences
of injury or death.  

I think everyone should wear the most reliable and capable tower climbing
gear.  No argument.  But what is driving 75 - 95% of the tower injuries in
the ham community?  Is it lack of a full body climbing harness?  I doubt it.
If it were, we would be hearing numerous stories of someone who fell and
felt they were only saved because of the harness vs whatever else they might
have been wearing.  If those stories are out there, please share them for us
all to learn, myself included.

Instead, virtually ALL of the stories I see are in fact completely unrelated
to the actual harness decision.  So saying that is the number one thing to
do first to improve safety for the community is just factually wrong.

Safety is actually improved by gathering the data and working it down from
the highest contributor first (what is that? not sure - but for sure its not
the body harness vs other belt decision).  

I would love to see that data if anyone has it.

Ed  N1UR

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Kevan Nason
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 8:56 AM
To: CQ Contest
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Tower Safety

Ed, N1UR wrote:
[CQ-Contest] Tower safety
Edward Sawyer EdwardS at sbelectronics.com
Sat Nov 16 06:58:49 EST 2019

Jim, Also with all due respect, these are all very serious issues that have
nothing to do with body harnesses and free climbing.  Failure analysis
deals with the direct cause.

Issue one - don't be on a tower all day.  Separate out work and know your
physical limits.  Don't climb alone.
Issue 2 - Be 100% sure what tower you are climbing.
Issue 3 - Job specific, don't let a project take down the tower you are on.
...  But the action provides no increase in safety for the three listed
items...

Guys - I want a good relation dialog to improve safety.  It helps us all to
increase safety. But saying - my action will be to buy a better climbing
harness does not improve safety for virtually all of the discussed items so
far.

Ed  N1UR
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