Fall Harness–The Latest Dumb Safety Photo To Go Viral

Truck Fall Harness–The Latest Dumb Safety Photo To Go Viral

This the latest “safety fail” photo currently going viral on social media. A guy unloading a table-top truck, decked out head-to-toe in all the PPE imaginable including a fall arrest harness which obviously isn’t going to work very effectively. TICK, TICK , TICK and FLICK……. Apart from increasing the disdain for silly Safety, all this does is create an illusion of safety, instill a false sense of safety or over-confidence – the by-product is likely a much higher risk.

What makes things different this time around are the comments being made about it. Instead of the usual judgmental comments about the dumb, stupid worker who should win a Darwin Award, the majority of comments seem to be directed at the ‘dumbness’ of Safety itself. (although not being on Linkedin anymore it could be a very different Safety Crusader style discussion going down over there – let me know).

Some of the comments I’ve read (there are 531 on one Facebook post alone):

• It gets to the point when health and safety becomes patronising. If you stupid enough to fall off your not qualified for the job
• Pointless it not going to stop the tines going through his eye balls is it. Health and safety should be banned
• Pathetic – typical useless health and safety – protecting desk jockeys from prosecution not workers from harm .
• But then you get seen doing it with out the “correct ppe” it’s bull$4it you don’t need half the stuff but policy and procedures say you have to , otherwise your up for the high jump
• I am not against safety and PPE. I just think making a guy wear working at height gear to jump on a lorry is a bit much
• Bubble wrap boys at their best as they sit in their warm offices making rules with no grasp of the real world outside of their windows away from a laptop!
• Just tell him if he falls it will hurt and their will be no claim as your paying him to stay on the truck not everyone is accident prone and need nursing through the day. And as for paying for courses delivered by glass backs that have never done the job is why accidents happen !!!
• This would actually restrict movement and cause more risk !! Who are the idiots that think of this stuff……have they ever done any physical work or tested their daft theories???? It’s another case of, “there’s been an accident” procedure. Steps to follow
  1. Cease all work.
  2. Knee jerk reaction such as wrap everyone in bubble wrap.
  3. Do not consult those doing the job for years with no accidents
  4. Bring knee jerk reaction forward at safety meeting
  5. Bring forward paperwork to ensure knee jerk reaction is carried out
  6. Complain workforce isn’t productive
  7. Bring in sigma yellow belt management consultant to establish reasons and sack a few people to increase profits
  8. Ensure everyone else picks up the slack.
  I think I should be a lecturer in modern business management!

Some interesting further reading:

• Risk Homeostasis Theory–Why Safety Initiatives Go Wrong
• Desensitisation–the by-product of ill-conceived safety initiatives
• Calculators, Matrices and Mumbo Jumbo Risk Assessment
• Tape Down Those Leads

Your thoughts on this are most welcome……..