Hi Ron, thanks for letting me join your group. I head up the onsite engineering division of our company Sitenett This is a keen interest of mine and although the UK has a good safety record, theres always room for improvement and no room for complacency. Although not a member of NATE, as its US based, I follow them on Linkedin and love the work they do. One of the things Im actively trying to do is to develop advanced rescue techniques along with my buddy Mick ( Michael Johnston). See the problem is we do our rescue refresher with whatever training provider every year and its quite frankly lip service. We do a snatch rescue straight abseil and not even with a live casualty anymore! This takes no account of things like casualty incapacitation, obsicals such as antennas and anti climb measures or having to manouvre the casualty from an awkward position such as a work platform with a closed hatch. All these scenarios could be a matter of life and death and we are of the opinion that if no one is being trained to to rescue us from such scenarios, well do it ourselves. So any guidance from other members and discussion on this subject would be fantastic :) Ive been following the industry in the US since that excellent Frontline documentary last year and notice that there now seems to be a big push from OSHA to regulate a bit better. Certainly Ive used the Frontline report to pressure our board of directors to change our company and commercial policy, so that we can walk of jobs if we are unhappy about safety and if we need an extra day to finish a job rather than working a 20 hour shift then Ive the authority to do it, even if we make a loss. I know this is rare, but we are only a small companyclibing isnt our only activity and we arent chasing the 4G dollar so to speak. There seems to be alot of noise from OSHA and NATE about this, but on the ground is it any different? Is the culture changing much? Anyway, this has turned out to be a big post so Ill shut up now! Finally, being a proud ambassador of my country, heres a pic of Mick flying our beloved Scottish Saltire flag at the top of a hybrid tower we built last year!
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:45:32 +0000