It is no secret that working in construction comes with a hefty dose of injury potential. In fact, it is potentially one of the most fatal jobs in both New York and the United States. According to OSHA, one in five deaths last year in the private industry were in construction. Even more concerning, nearly 40% of those deaths were a direct result of falls. Therefore, preventing fall injuries is paramount in protecting your health and even your life.
The good news (and the sad thing about this statistic) is that all of these deaths were 100% preventable. The first thing to do is to ensure that you have adequate fall protection. Essentially, if you are working at a height of six feet or more, you need to have a fall protection plan in place. Employers must take responsibility in planning for this when they are crafting job specs. The cost of safety equipment needs to be factored into the overall cost of the job from square one.
After having an adequate plan in place, employers are then responsible for providing the protection necessary for the workers. Not only does the system need to be in place, it also needs to be inspected regularly to ensure that it works well.
Finally, employers are responsible for ensuring that their employees are properly trained on using the protection. It is important that employees also participate in protecting their own safety by following protocol in using equipment correctly. For instance, if employees are working with ladders, those employees should ensure that they keep three points of contact on the ladder at all points.