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Fall Protection for Welders and Highway Safety

Fall Protection for Welders and Highway Safety

Working at height can be dangerous. Welding is also rife with hazardous possibilities. Do them both at the same time and you're a special type of person. This photo was taken during a highway traffic stop in Costa Rica. While I don't consider the typical Costa Rican construction project to be overly safe, I was amazed to see the level of safety exhibited in this photo.

First let's look at the highway workers. They're all wearing reflective safety vests. They are also wearing hard hats. I don't know if the vests meet Class 2 reflective requirements or not. But I do know that lots of welding is done down here by throwing a wire over a municipal power line, so I'm inclined to applaud the effort.

The welders constructing the walking bridge are also wearing appropriate safety equipment (from a distance anyway). They've all got on fall protection attached to a horizontal lifeline solution. Is the lifeline engineered to hold the weight of four workers? I just don't know. But it was a welded solution. There's got to be at least a good possibility. Are the lanyards rated for arc-flash protection? I just couldn't tell. The point here is that safety is important wherever you go.

What do you see in this picture? Are they covering their safety requirements as far as you're concerned?

Mar 17th 2015 Justin McCarter

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