Falls cost and safety pays: Stemming the leading cause of construction-related fatalities

“SAFETY PAYS. FALLS COST.”

That slogan is just one of many tools the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) uses to help prevent falls in the workplace and on the jobsite — particularly construction jobsites.

According to OSHA (citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data), “Falls are the leading cause of death in construction. In 2015, there were 350 fatal falls to a lower level out of 937 construction fatalities. These deaths are preventable.”

In its ongoing Fall Prevention Campaign, OSHA also puts a focus on “Plan. Provide. Train. Three simple steps to preventing falls.” To be more complete, the OSHA website — www.osha.gov — urges companies and individuals to:

  • PLAN ahead to get the job done safely.

  • PROVIDE the right equipment.

  • TRAIN everyone to use the equipment safely.

OSHA’s website home for its Fall Prevention Campaign can be found here. That Web page also has links to a page of educational materials and resources a page of training tools, including links to online videos; and a page of media resources.

In the arena of “Plan. Provide. Train.” and the overall OSHA Fall Prevention Campaign, Safety Solutions & Supply is a leading choice as an OSHA training partner. Our professional and OSHA-certified instructors lead a variety of training courses dealing directly or indirectly with fall prevention and protection. These courses include:

  • Fall Protection General Application Training

  • Fall Protection Competent Person Training

  • Aerial Work Platform/Bucket Truck Operations Training

  • Aerial Work Platform Operations (AWP) Training

  • Scaffolding Competent Person Training

  • Scaffolding End User Training

  • OSHA 10 General Industry Training

  • OSHA 30 Construction Industry Training

  • General Safety Training

Many other courses offered by Safety Solutions & Supply might touch on the subject of fall prevention.

Fall Protection Competent Person Training is an eight-hour class that fully adheres to OSHA standards. It helps students to identify hazards, select equipment, understand the differences between fall protection and prevention, prepare them for inspections, and much more. This program qualifies workers to be designated fall protection “competent persons.” A competent person is defined by OSHA as a designated person with sufficient experience and/or knowledge to recognize fall-related hazards and correct unsafe conditions. This person has the ability to shut down the worksite until any hazards are corrected.