[TowerTalk] Fall Arrest Harness arrest experience

[Pat Barthelow]

Testing of various subjects (some of whom lost consciousness) in a  Fall arrest scenario  
at Wright- Patterson AFB and a number of anecdotal real experiences of 
Loss of consciousness when suspended in full body harnesses are described on the web:
here is one such report:
http://www.cdc.gov/eLCOSH/docs/d0500/d000551/d000551.html

If your arrested/suspended fall situation causes you to be suspended away from the tower or 
other structure, and you cannot quickly reach solid support to unload your body
from the suspended condition, it is/or should be considered a Medical Emergency.
And not always easy to ameliorate, even if first responders get to you soon; Unless
they are specially equipped to reach and rescue suspended victims.  Quite a few stories
of folks who are unconscious in less than a minute or two after being suspended off the 
ground, even in training exercises.

I did a mental walk through of this possible scenario at Jamesburg Earth Station,  and it was scary.  I then called
and did a walk through of the scenario with the Local Fire Department around the corner. 
It turns out that the  Fire station very close to Jamesburg happened to have  specially trained 
and equipped  first responders to do a suspended rescue, though at best it is going to be, I bet, at least 30 
minutes before a dangling "victim" would be rescued, even if the emergency call was done 
immediately.  Jamesburg has lot of geometries that could easily leave a fall-arrest victim 60 ft above ground
and 20 ft away from any horizontal structure.  See the dish website; Lots of photos, below.





All the best,   Pat Barthelow   aa6eg at k6bj.org 
Jamesburg Moon Bounce Team

http://www.jamesburgdish.org


"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, 

the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 

"Eureka!" (I found it!) but... 


"That's
funny...""   --Isaac Asimov











> From: draxfelton at gmail.com
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:09:58 -0500
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Fall Arrest Harness arrest experience
> 
> As I was working on my tower today I was thinking these questions:
> 
> Has anyone ever fallen and been "arrested" by their harness?
> If so, what was the outcome?  
> 
> This is a serious question:
> Did the harness crush your male anatomy? Or did it grab around your thighs?
> 
> Did you smack into the side of the tower?
> How painful was it?
> 
> 
> --KB3X
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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