How To Select The Best Fall Arrest Harness
How To Select The Best Fall Arrest Harness
As trade professionals we can often find ourselves working at dangerous heights. Some of us make our living working at these heights day in and day out, but whether you wear a fall arrest harness once a year or once a day, few of us ever experience an actual fall. So how do you know what makes for a safe, quality harness?
Well here at a Concord Carpenter we thankfully have never had any of our crew experience a dangerous fall. So without the experience of feeling the impact of an arrested fall or the feeling of all your weight on a harness while hanging and waiting for a rescue, how do you judge the best fall arrest harness? We went to THE experts in Fall Arrest technology, Werner Ladder Company, known for their #1 Brand of ladders, but now led by Daniel P. Ward has launched an innovative Fall Arrest line designed from a real user’s perspective.
Daniel P. Ward
With 23 years of experience in the movie industry protecting actors and stunt doubles during exhilarating stunt scenes Dan Ward is a guru of fall arrest, fall protection, and fall prevention. Dan knows the effect falls can have on a worker and their family and has used his expertise and passion to help safeguard the men and women who risk their lives to make a living. Dan has expertly trained Werner representatives to administer a free demonstration and training all over the country to ensure you, your co-workers, and employees are armed with the knowledge to select the most effective harness and wear and use them properly.
The Problem
Most manufacturers of Fall Arrest Harnesses are concerned about cost. This “race to the bottom” results in finding components of equipment to remove to lower cost and increase profit. The problem with this concept is that to get this lower cost you give something up, and that something can often be an important component that keeps YOU safer.
Fact of the matter that countless manufacturers focus on meeting basic regulations and costs goals rather than performance goals. And performance is the key to why Werner’s expertise is so valuable, they’ve worked with professionals who have made falling a regular part of their everyday experience and so they know the effect of those falls. We as trade professionals don’t respect the risks we take or the equipment we wear, due to the complacency of never experiencing a fall.
Don’t get me wrong I understand how you can become complacent working up high day after day, but unfortunately we forget that the consequences of a fall are never experienced, and certainly not frequently enough to have an impact on our behavior. Death, paralysis, and serious injury are realities in our line of work, so before you purchase your next fall arrest system, take a look at these features to ensure you protect yourself and your crew from serious injury.
