56 replies to this topic

[GMACKIE]

Garrie Cooper [Australian race-car builder] was very much concerned with Elfin safety.

[Lee Nicolle]

Heard a story yesterday at the local GP Clinic while waiting for an X Ray. Unverified but sounds right. A cyclist was knocked back for workers comp as he crashed his bike [while riding home from work]  because of the large Sports Bag containg in part his work uniform, squash gear etc on the handlebars. The insurers said this what caused the crash [by himself]. So posties with the loads they carry on their bikes [though on carriers] are way overloaded. my local posties use 110 hondas postie bikes, I have seen them go down a couple of times with seeminly no treal injuries. They are now in fluro green jackets, helmet and with a fluro green banner on an ariel! I guess they wish to be seen!

I shudder, when I was a kid I delivered the local paper on a bike. 150 plus 32 page [normally] papers stuffed into a carrier front and rear. Uphill, down dale in a newly developed area with no gutters. Surprising I never really hurt myself,,, though my knees have been paying for those bike rides and crashes for a long time.

 

And yes, the XRay, I fell a over t in the workshop Saturday and have broken my knee cap! Which now I cannot get operated on until Tuesday afternoon! Never get injured on the weekend!

Though there was a cyclist [in lycra] with a broken arm and a 10 y/o footballer seeming with a broken wrist. So I was in good company!

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 03 August 2014 - 23:40.

[D-Type]

The cyclist story isn't really an "'elf 'n safety" misapplication, it is simply the usual venal insurance company seeking any excuse not to pay that it can.

 

I hope the kneecap op goes OK.  I hesitate how long you would have to wait in Britain with our creaking National Health Service - something like "half past next week - maybe".

[Dipster]

Another silly story was one I heard from a colleague, a very highly qualified electrical techie, just before I quit work. He was home on leave and decided to have Sky installed for his old Mum. He made all the arrangements and was presenet the day the installer arrived. My colleague had found the perfect spot for the dish-just 2 metres up the side of a wall. Before the work began my colleague was asked for his signature agreeing to the installer fitting a safety ring 1m50 up the wall. This was so he could attach his safety harness to allow him to work up his stepladder in safety............  My colleague-who installs all manner of dishes for hi-tech comm systems (amongst many other things)- was gobsmacked. "Health and safety requirement" he was told.

[Vitesse2]

Another silly story was one I heard from a colleague, a very highly qualified electrical techie, just before I quit work. He was home on leave and decided to have Sky installed for his old Mum. He made all the arrangements and was presenet the day the installer arrived. My colleague had found the perfect spot for the dish-just 2 metres up the side of a wall. Before the work began my colleague was asked for his signature agreeing to the installer fitting a safety ring 1m50 up the wall. This was so he could attach his safety harness to allow him to work up his stepladder in safety............  My colleague-who installs all manner of dishes for hi-tech comm systems (amongst many other things)- was gobsmacked. "Health and safety requirement" he was told.

I suppose it also works out cheaper than having a second bloke in the van whose only functions are to stand on the bottom of the ladder and pass the occasional tool up to the one actually doing the work.

[Duc-Man]

Makes me wonder what this installer had done if the dish was meant to be way up there..like maybe 3 and a half metres from the ground.

[Mistron]

Yes, the Sky installer sounds over the top, but perhaps this puts it in context:

 

http://www.hse.gov.u...oi-ldn-1512.htm

 

Yes, the fall that lead to this death was a lot higher, but 'once bitten, twice shy' they learned the hard way, and take a hard line on it. I wasn't involved in the prosecution, but have spoken to several of their installers in the past, and always found them to be happy to take all the precautions - knowing why they are in place.

 

Al