Southwest Asia --
Air Force Ground
Safety sponsored Fall Protection Focus weeks from May 4-15 to raise awareness of fall hazards as well
as how to mitigate fall-related accidents.
Here, safety officials organized a fall protection demonstration to educate base
personnel on proper pre-climb procedures.
“This
demonstration shows [everyone] how to use the equipment as well as the safety
and rescue procedures involved in a situation like this,” said Tech. Sgt.
Russell, RF Transmissions NCO in-charge.
The annual fall protection initiative is partnered
with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health's campaign, "National Safety
Stand-Down."
Air Force safety
statistics indicated falls were responsible for 7,671 ground mishaps with
injuries, including three fatalities, between fiscal years 2010 and 2014. These
incidents resulted in 44,000 lost work days at a cost of more than $30M.
“With the high operations tempo [here] something
that’s seemingly basic, like climbing a tower, could easily cause complacency
and you tend to forget little things,” said Russell. “It’s really important to
pay attention to detail especially in this fast pace environment.”
Bill Parsons,
Air Force chief of ground safety, noted that falls shouldn’t just be thought of
as situations involving heights.
“Fall protection
or prevention is not only for activities related
to heights that are encountered every day on-the-job, but also includes, for
example, falls that can happen because of wet floors or obstacles on a walkway,”
said Parsons.
The two weeks dedicated to fall protection is an
opportunity to create awareness of fall hazards and according to the Air Force
Safety Center, to further the cause, installations and/or MAJCOMs can
execute this focus awareness whenever it is deemed appropriate.
“We want everyone to remember that preventable falls are
inexcusable and that we must continue to do all we can to protect ourselves and
each other,” said Parsons.
(Editor’s note: Due to safety and security reasons,
last names and unit designators were removed.)