Falls are one of the leading causes of worker injuries in the construction industry. Construction workers are exposed to job site falls and hazards, from steel erection, to roofing, to general commercial and residential construction.
Falls can leave workers with permanent and debilitating injuries even from moderate heights. More significantly, if you are working at heights over two metres, the risk of severe injury or death from a fall increases significantly.
While falls can occur in all industries, they are most common in construction, manufacturing, community services, trade, communications, transport and storage. Employers must ensure their workplace is safe, which means controlling the risk of falls from any height.
Analysis has also shown that the risk of serious injury from a fall is much higher in falls from two metres or more. Typical falls that cause death and injury include those resulting from:
- Using unsafe, incomplete or deficient scaffolds
- Inappropriate ladders/ladder use
- Falling from or through roofs
- Falling from trucks
- Falling into holes, pits or shafts
- Accessing shelving, and
- Accessing mezzanine regions.
Employers
Employers have a general obligation to make their workplace safe, including controlling the risk of falls. However, specific duties apply if there is a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres. One must identify any task with the risk of falling more than two metres. Where reasonably practicable, one must eliminate the risk (e.g. by accomplishing the work on the ground or a solid construction).
If this is not reasonably practicable, the risk must be controlled using the following measures in order of priority, so far as is reasonably possible:
- Utilisation of a passive fall prevention device
- A work positioning system ensuring employees work within a safe area
- A fall arrest system installed to limit the risk of injuries in case of a fall
- Use a fixed or portable ladder, or implement an administrative control
- Use of a scaffolding safety device that maintains scaffold integrity and security
The law
Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act) sets out the fundamental principles, duties and rights concerning occupational health and safety. The responsibilities imposed address a wide variety of circumstances. It also recognises the need for a duty-holder to have the flexibility to determine what needs to be done to correctly comply.
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations 2017), Part 3.3 Prevention of falls of the OHS Regulations is intended to prevent falls of more than two metres and reduce the number of falls that result in serious injury. In this regard, for prevention and control, the OHS regulations impose specific legal responsibilities on employers.
Requirements for height safety compliance
In Australia, height safety equipment and working at heights practices are governed by the Working At Height Association (WAHA). They also enforce the Australian Standards & Industry Codes.
The relevant height safety legislation and the equipment or areas you require safe access to determine the type of fall protection equipment needed to achieve compliance.
As a general rule, fall protection equipment is required for anyone working at heights of 2 metres or higher. There are many different types of fall protection systems, with the most suitable for your premises depending on the fall hazards present and the kind of work carried out.
Fall Prevention Solutions
According to Safe Work Australia, there were 194 worker fatalities in 2020 due to injuries sustained in the course of work-related activity; of these, 11% comprised falling from height.
It is important to remember that not all people working from heights are professionals. Thus it should be safe for anyone, whether a maintenance worker hanging holiday lights or the cable provider accessing high points.
Fall Arrest Systems
These systems can be as basic as a beam clamp, body harness and lanyard or as complex as an engineered overhead horizontal lifeline with a trolly, but they serve the same purpose.
A fall arrest system assumes the inevitability of a fall and is put in place to arrest a worker in the event a fall occurs to a lower level of obstruction. Three components make up a fall arrest system:
- Body support – A full-body harness is designed to disperse the arresting load to multiple areas of your body and hold a person while suspended in a fall.
- Connectors – Lanyard and SRLs or any other device that attaches a person from a harness to an anchor point.
- Anchors – The point that a person ties off to with their lanyard or SRL. It is recommended that an anchor point used in fall arrest needs to withstand 5,000 pounds or have a safety factor of two.
Scaffolding
A scaffolding system consists of vertical posts fixed to connection points at regular intervals. Horizontal and diagonal tubes are then slotted into this framework. Scaffolds can be designed and installed into standardised bays or interlocked to include cantilevers, bridges and protection fans.
It is a highly flexible system; however, it requires time and care to get the correct scaffolding design for each project and fit the tubes together securely for safe and secure scaffolding. Its adaptability makes it possible to add in extra features such as modular beams, cladding, debris netting and stair units for other fall arrest systems.
Construction scaffolding safety can make your project safer as they prevent your employees from having to use ladders, towers, and other more dangerous methods as they work on tall structures. Nevertheless, scaffolds are not entirely risk-free or secure if workers do not use safety precautions, severe injury or even death.
With the nature of most construction projects being conducted several feet above street level, a fall can be catastrophic, and a scaffolding fall can cause serious, if not fatal.
Fall arrest systems
Walking or working within two meters of a roof’s edge requires a fall arrest system for employees. With numerous fall arrest systems available and the precautions within which they are used, one’s choice will primarily rely upon the relevant compliance regulations in place and the areas that need to be accessed.
Anchor points
Anchors form a significant part of any fall protection system, and it is usually a device purposefully manufactured and installed to connect to and fully support a fall protection system.
For instance, workers will connect their lanyard or lifeline to an anchor to use a fall protection system, and anchorage implies a secure connection point for a fall protection system.
There are different anchors available, varying by industry, job, building type, type of installation, and structure. The basic anchor systems for fall protection include permanent anchors and temporary or moveable anchors.
An engineer or competent person should verify the adequate capacity of these anchors to serve as anchor points.
Cable-Based Lifelines
Cable fall protection systems are referred to by many names, including ratlines, HLLs, and horizontal lifelines. They comprise wire ropes secured by a series of terminal and intermediate anchor points in their simplest form.
Workers can safely move along a horizontal (or vertical) plane by connecting body harnesses and lanyards to a shuttle travelling the length of the line. Deceptively simple in design, when done correctly, they are highly engineered fall protection systems.
Modular and Custom Fabricated Catwalks
Catwalk Platform Systems enable access to equipment and machinery in a different number of settings. They are elevated platforms that transform previously unused overhead space into walkways.
While creating a workspace for activities such as overhead inspections, equipment maintenance and more, they reduce foot traffic on the facility floor. Catwalk systems can be both self-supporting or suspended from the structure.
Ladders and Ladder Safety Systems
Many accidents occur when workers lose their footing while carrying tools and materials up fixed ladders. This is particularly common in inclement weather, and accidents like these can be prevented using ladder fall protection solutions.
A vertical lifeline is a cable-based ladder safety system that has a shuttle linking to a worker’s harness D-ring. The shuttle serves as a mobile anchor point that moves with the worker as they ascend and descend the ladder. In case they slip, the traveller engages the cable and arrests the workers fall.
Loading Platforms, Stairs and Gangways
These are passive fall restraint systems designed to prevent slips and accidents before they happen. Easy-to-use, they are equipped with stairs, guardrails and a gangway system providing workers safe access to various task locations, regardless of whether it’s on top of a railcar or truck, monitoring station, or servicing and maintaining overhead equipment.
Portable Fall Protection
One can increase on-site safety by using freestanding and mobile fall arrest systems. They are portable system solutions that can be transported and engineered with your specific needs in consideration.
They are ideal applications for outside areas that lack permanent overhead anchor points and inside applications that are not confined to a designated work area.
Rigid Rail Fall Arrest Systems
The overhead rigid rail systems improve mobility on raised surfaces and safety in fall protection. They are used to arrest falls before the user strikes the ground or other objects below and limit the fall distance to under two feet.
Some feature a unique triangular truss design allowing 80 feet or more between support columns. Compared to other truss designs, it provides better stability and sheer strength. They are also cost-effective systems that install rapidly, and they require fewer columns and supports.
Roof Guardrail & Safety Railing
These are simple and cost-effective fall protection systems providing easy-to-use leading edge fall protection. They seamlessly work for a variety of applications such as rooftops, mezzanines, stairs, access platforms, gangways and loading docks, to name a few.
Roof walkways
Even for professionals, roofs can be dangerous without proper equipment. Small wonder roofing and roof-related jobs normally top the most-dangerous-jobs list annually. A roof walkway may be required for safe access to roof-mounted plants and equipment. They act as an easy solution to protect employees, equipment, and the rooftop itself.
Height Safety Guardrail & Roof Edge Protection
It requires the installation of several different types of height safety equipment to attain a comprehensive height safety system. To provide safety at height, it is recommended to add roof edge protection on those particular rooftops.
A comprehensive system often consists of guardrails and handrails designed to prevent personnel from falling over the edge of a building thus, preventing injury or death. Not all facilities can accommodate this solution, but installing them on your roof is one of the safest and surest ways to cut costs.
This solution can be applied to a wide range of areas such as rooftops, train station platforms, football stadiums, warehouses and chemical facilities.