By: Kelly Holdaway On: December 17, 2013 In: Blog Comments: 0

‘Tis the season to lift safely! Don’t let the Christmas festivities distract you from sticking to elf and safety procedures when using cranes, or you might end up on Father Christmas’ naughty list like this terrible lot.

These rather frightening examples of health and safety ignorance from around the world are taken from Vertikal.net’s Death Wish series. We like that their scary photos promote that everyone should be paying more attention to industry rules and regulations – so keep up the good work!

Here’s a couple of key pointers to bear in mind not just for Christmas but the whole year round…

#1 – Never ride the load

Riding the load
is a classic shortcut which can easily spell disaster!

This man looks like he’s hanging on for dear life as he is riding an air conditioning unit. We wonder if he wished he’d taken the stairs after seeing the worn webbing slings that are supporting him…

These two Aussies are riding a concrete panel being lifted by a tower crane, that trailing tag line is caught in the formwork and tilting the load

#2 – Don’t dangle yourself from a crane

Ouch, this guy is going to be sore in the morning. Lifted by a crane, his harness looks like it might be cutting off circulation to his legs and other vital parts(!). Apart from being very uncomfortable, suspension trauma like this could cause a blood clot which could work its way up to his brain or heart and prove fatal.

We hope the overhead power lines were turned off too! Read more here.

#3 – Don’t let the excitement of Christmas get the better of you

This ambitious tree decorator is headed for a festive fall as he scales this giant gold Christmas tree in Russia. We’re not even sure how he got up there… the magic of Christmas?! He’ll be spending it in hospital at this rate.

#4 – Mind your head!

The Spanish are renowned for their laid back attitude, but this takes the biscuit!

It’s never advisable to stand directly underneath an unstable looking makeshift scaffold with two men and a heavy air conditioning units on top of it. Even the passer by’s dog looks disturbed by this accident waiting to happen! Read more here.

#5 – Find somewhere safe to sit have your lunch

This Turkish steel erector with a head for heights almost found the perfect place to have his lunch in peace and admire the view. How did he even get up there?! Read more here.

#6 – Always wear the correct PPE… and shoes!

This precarious looking human chain helped replace 10 metre high street light bulbs at the Golden Pagoda in Myanmar using a flimsy looking scaffold, all whilst barefoot and harness-free!

#7 – Don’t practice your Spiderman skills on site

You may have seen this completely bonkers daredevil on the news, seasoned crane climber James Kingston who managed to get all the way up to the top of a tower crane and hang from its jib. Apparently this crazy display was to prove a point that out of service tower cranes should be better secured against intruders.

This is truly scary stuff so if you don’t like heights you might want to avoid watching this video. Don’t try this at home!

 

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