Fall Arrest Training Saves Many Lives When Taught Properly

Summary: While fall arrest training wasn\’t even on the radar of most companies 1 or 2 decades ago, it\’s now saving lives. Fall arrest training classes work the best when they consider where workers stand from the beginning and allow for hands on training time.

There\’s no way to accurately estimate how many lives might have been saved throughout modern history if fall arrest training had always been part of working at height.

Only a few decades ago, workers did not necessarily take adequate safety precautions when working in situations where falls were possible. If they took any precautions at all, they were taken inconsistently and weren\’t always carefully considered, proven measures. Instead , they did the best they could with their limited safety equipment and limited training in how to manage risks and prevent major injuries.

Today, fall arrest training saves lives each day. Incidents that would have once led to catastrophic injuries now either don\’t occur due to better training or don\’t result in serious injuries due to better equipment.

What are the most typical approaches to fall protection classes around the planet? What must be thought about for a class to competently prepare workers to mitigate risk?

Classes vary by industry, training company and jurisdiction, naturally, but here are 5 areas that are commonly considered:

1. Where workers stand before the course starts. Before any good training course can begin, it\’s crucial to find out what participants already know. That is the reason why many courses focus part of the first day on a pretest or some other kind of evaluation of existing knowledge.

2. Why fall arrest training is mandatory. Some employees think they\’re invincible. They do not completely understand that they are subject to injury and death just like everyone else. Good trainers try to make certain all trainees understand the reason for the training so they\’re going to follow with the information presented and benefit from it as much as is possible.

3. How gravity can work for or against you. Nothing is more basic to fall protection and prevention than knowing how gravity works. This force of nature behaves in predictable ways — ways everybody should have been taught in school. But many have forgotten the rules of gravity and need a refresher course.

4. How specific fall arrest systems work. Once employees are convinced of the need for the training, classes generally turn to the specifics of the systems used in the industry that employs the workers. Obviously, the training and equipment needs for someone that installs signage in front of businesses is extremely different to the needs of an employee who repels within oil storage tanks to check them for damage.

5. Legal requirements of jurisdictions involved. Regulations about fall arrest training and procedural requirements can vary by country and city, so courses must spend some time concentrating on how local ordinances and national workplace regulations interact with the skills learned in class. While there happen to be a number of procedures which will protect workers in a stipulated situation, a few of them may not go along with legal requirements where the work is being performed.

As well as spending time on the five general subject areas discussed above, employees who take fall arrest training classes can expect to spend a large part of the time learning procedures and demonstrating knowledge in a hands on environment. Without hands-on training, these types of courses can\’t successfully improve workplace safety.

And improved safety should be the primary purpose of any fall arrest training course.

Driaan Louw writes about fall arrest trining courses in the rope access inspection industry because he knows how quickly a safe workplace environment can become dangerous if procedures aren\’t followed.

Fall Arrest Training Saves Many Lives When Taught Properly