Ken: "If you fall from 100' it does not matter if you are wearing a hard
hat or not."
As Seinfeld says: At that point, the hat is wearing you.
Leland R. S. Torrence
Leland Torrence Enterprises and the Guild
17 Vernon Court, Woodbridge, CT 06525
Office: 203-397-8505
Fax: 203-389-7516
Pager: 860-340-2174
Mobile: 203-981-4004
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
www.LelandTorrenceEnterprises.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Yes, we set off an A-bomb but we are really sorry about it.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gabriel
Orgrease
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 6:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] They guys doing the lintel work across from me...
c-
On Monday I had to explain to a lawyer why one would need to go up on a
roof to check the rigging. Though I am not aware of bolts ever having
worked their way out on the motor on the rig as per Eric's scenario, we
have in the past had to change out motors in the air. No fun task. But,
there are issues w/ the wires & bolts (j-bolts, fist grips... a wire
rope connector not used in any other applications that I know of... they
are like u-bolts only designed to equalize pressure on the cable, thus
not to crimp or pinch the cable) being TAMPERED with. We have had them
tampered with. You never know why. But since your life is hanging from
the system it is good policy to assign someone to check the rigging on a
daily basis. The lawyer got excited when I said, "Tampered with,"
thinking there was some hidden importance to my message so I added,
"Yeah, a sea gull could have sat on it."
Off the record: I had a most entertaining deposition as the other lawyer
(of three, a rather small affair) kept laughing that the lawyer who was
asking me the questions how I guided him in how to ask questions. One
question I had to cautiously explain to him -- had made a fuss when I
stopped him in his introductory speach when I insisted that he inform me
as to whom he was representing -- that I could not answer yes or no as
long as he continued to use a plural. At one point he asked in a
double-negative, caught himself and I smiled and told him if he wanted
to do triple negatives we could that too. He asked me if I had spoken
with anyone in the future about the case, to whit I asked if he did not
mean have I spoken with anyone in the past? To that he admited that his
question sounded stupid. I went in dressed in my usual on-site bohunk
work clothes, contemplated if I should or should not shave and broke
down and shaved, and since I have no formal education to speak of they
were a bit perplexed at my line of answering. Afterwards they wanted to
know if I was Ken Follett the mystery writer.
Cantilever rigs... I was told once by an insurance agent about an
incident where the crew had not placed the counterweights onto the
cantilever beams and when they went to run the rig, thus pulling down on
the ends of the beams, that as they ran the scaffold motor that it
pulled out the beams which then came down rather quickly and impalled
the mechanics like very large spears. The surmise was that uneducated
non-English speaking crews were being sent out w/out instruction but
with a bunch of equipment and no idea on their own how it all went
together.
What amazes me over the years is how many architects & engineers 1) do
not own their own safety harness and 2) do not know what to look for in
a rigging system to know if it is safe or not. We did a project a while
ago on a relatively prominent building in which an outside contractor
was to provide the rigging that we had to work on. They were not
prepared for us to complain loudly about the poor quality of their
rigging. Not only were we to use the rigging but so were the
conservator, architect and structural engineer and none of them had a
clue what we were complaining about. We were fortunate that there was a
prevailing attitude against the scaffold supplier that our argument won
forward, but the attitude had nothing at all to do with if the supplier
knew how to rig safely, or not. The folks selling the job were not the
ones out doing the rigging.
My complaint about the architects & engineers not having their own
harnesses comes down to the fact that not all bodies are the same. A
woman needs a somewhat different harness than a man... and these things
if they are actually going to save a life need to be fitted not too
differently than one would want to fit a respirator. Also that this
equipment needs to be maintained... not thrown in the back of a van or
left on a wet floor to slowly rot, or to be covered with corrosive
mortar. That a professional organization would NOT supply the best
possible personal safety gear to their folks that are going out and
hanging off the side of a building, or riding in a lift I consider
irresponsible. That they would not see that their staff is trained and
conscious of the need to look out for their own safety, and not be
dependent on what could be a contractor's poorly trained field personnel
makes no sense to me. They should know to look and they should know what
they are looking at. Yes, there are liability issues of intereference in
safety means & methods... but we are talking here about the personal
choice to risk one's life. I do not know how many times I have had an
architect ride up my backside because of hardhat usage on the project,
and yet they tend to be ignorant of and neglect their own personal
safety. If you fall from 100' it does not matter if you are wearing a
hard hat or not. I am aware that there are architectural firms that have
taken the step of sending their folks out to get the same certification
as mechanics are required to ride a rig. There are outfits who take the
life safety of their employees seriously. When I ask the question, "Do
you have a harness?" I prefer not to be told that we need to provide a
harness because the architect/engineer is not sure if they have one or
not. And then their legal departments forbid them from signing a hold
harmless. I can understand if they have to go find the one $20,000
infrared camera that the company owns, but a $100 full-body harness
should be standard issue for each and every professional that is
expected in the course of their work to go where one is required.
][<en
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