[TowerTalk] Tower Incidents

[Patrick Greenlee]

Good stuff (see below) but I wonder if anyone of the "Free Climb" 
fraternity is ever convinced to use safety gear short of a personal near 
death experience since they know bad stuff ONLY happens to the other guy.

I remember when cars first started coming with seat belts and auto parts 
stores were selling after market belts to retrofit to older cars. Before 
it was a law with fines for disobeying many folks refused to buckle up. 
There were all sorts of specious excuses such as wanting to be thrown 
clear of the accident, not being trapped in a burning car with a buckle 
malfunction or drowning under water unable to release the belt and on 
and on and on all unsubstantiated by statistics.

There are multiple levels of learning ability which can be characterized 
as follows:

1.  pees on the hot wire and does it again later not having learned from 
the first experience.

2.  pees on the hot wire and subsequently avoids that act.

3.  Sees what happens when someone else pees on the hot wire and avoids 
that action/consequence without having to do it himself.

4.  Reasons that peeing on the hot wire is likely a bad idea and avoids 
doing it.

I try to be a #4 as much as possible and try very very hard to avoid 
ever being a #1

Once upon a time when I didn't know any better while taking a sabbatical 
I climbed towers with a linesman belt with two steel lanyards, provided 
by my employer.  Made it safe to use both hands for working on stuff 
but... if you fell it could break your back. Now equipped with a good 
fall arresting harness I try to not need it having three tilt over towers.

Patrick        NJ5G

On 6/21/2016 9:36 AM, Robert Morris wrote:
> On Jun 21, 2016, at 12:06 AM, Wilson wrote:
>
> I asked the other day, during the fall related messages, if anyone had, or knew of anyone who had, been saved by a fall protection system.
> ----------
> My last employer gave a  tower climbing school and issued the latest full body harness gear.
>
> Included were the two (one will always be attached to the tower) lanyards, plus spares.
>
> These clipped to the D ring, in back, between the shoulder blades.
>
> They were constructed to provide a "soft" fall. If they were "pulled" with more than a 100 pounds they unraveled at a moderate speed.
>
> Old, fat guys (guess) moved a little faster, but still a soft stop.
>
> On the last day, we got to "test" the lanyards.
>
> The hard part is telling your little brain, O, yea, just step off the tower.
>
> With the old linesmen belt, if you fall three or four feet, your back is broken or the belt has jammed your diaphragm, so you can't breathe.
>
> The D ring in back, is the way a mother dog or cat carries her babies. Nape of the neck.
>
> Hanging from the lanyard, you can just reach out and grab the tower, or you will live long enough get help.
>
> I forget the brand, I'm sure there is more than one and things may have changed in eight years.
>
> They said to replace the full harness every five years, either to sell a lot of gear or the stuff has a shelf life.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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