The emphasis was on safety at the National Association of Tower Erectors 2014 conference in San Diego this week, with a new education campaign that comes with the knowledge that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is watching closely to see if the industry can curb the trend of rising deaths among tower climbers.
“Tower accidents are on the rise,” said Rob Medlock, a former area director for OSHA and currently vice president for Safety Controls Technology, in a session on the primary reasons for tower accidents. “They were on the rise last year, and thus far, we are not having a very good year.”
Four tower-related deaths have been recorded in the first two months of 2014, and there were 13 fatalities last year. That increase recently prompted OSHA to send a letter to the industry warning that it will be incorporating additional scrutiny to make sure that safety rules are being followed, particularly by subcontractors.
Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, addressed the conference by remote connection. The archived video can be found here. He told the gathered attendees that tower works have a risk of fatal injury that is 25 to 30 times higher than the average American worker and called that “clearly unacceptable.”
Michaels mentioned three particular areas that the industry can work on in regards to safety. He said that in many tower collapse investigations, the structure failed as workers were replacing structural components or strengthening the tower for increased capacity.
“In some cases, too many diagonals were taken out without adequate bracing. In others, workers weren’t given clear directions about how to do the work and maintain structural integrity. So before starting a job involving replacing a structural component, employers must develop and implement a plan to prevent collapse and ensure those workers are safe,” Michaels said.
He noted that most fatalities in the industry are due to falls, and most of them involve workers wearing safety harnesses but not tying off to the tower.
“Here’s something we all know but is sometimes forgotten or ignored: appropriately used fall protection saves lives,” Michaels said, going on to site the case of a worker doing maintenance on an antenna on top of a water tower in Virginia Beach. “When his descent control device failed, the safety line connected to the D-ring on his harness stopped his fall and saved his life. This is the type of ending we all would prefer to see; one in which the worker goes home safely at the end of the day,” Michaels added. “We must make 100% tie-off the norm in this industry.”
He also asked NATE members to submit suggestions of particularly good processes or contract language that works for them in ensuring safety.
As the show progressed, Medlock and two colleagues with long histories in the tower industry led a packed room in discussion of the root causes of safety failures. And, they noted, safety is not just about what a particular tower tech does on a given day, it’s a system and set of expectations that can break down within an organization.
Ed Dennis, with more than 18 years of experience in structural steel erection and the tower industry as well as training positions, said that an attitude of prioritizing safety has to come from an organization’s top and permeate the supervisors and front office staff as well. He said the industry has a disconnect on safety on words versus actions.
“I think we have a lack of commitment. Maybe we have it on paper. Maybe it’s policy. But are we truly making an honest effort to ensure that from office staff to management staff to construction management to on-site supervisors? Are we enforcing that message?” Dennis said.
NATE, as a member of a wireless industry safety task force, announced a new education campaign for 100% tie-off 24/7 to try to ensure that the industry makes a better effort on fall prevention. Todd Schlekeway, executive director of NATE, tells us more about the campaign and the show in this video:
Tying off to the tower rather than free-climbing is supposed to the the default, and for many attendees, it was a no-brainer and part of their everyday practices. NATE had a mini-tower on-hand for attendees to sign to affirm their commitment to 100% tie-off (photo above right). But the number of recent falls and accidents show that the industry is far from the 100% that NATE would like to see.
RCR Wireless spoke to several safety training experts at the show.
For their thoughts, check out these videos: Â
There was also recognition from attendees that even with good training and proper equipment, tower hands face challenging conditions on infrastructure that is often aging and overbuilt, with little incentive for tower companies or operators to tear down existing sites when new macro sites are hard to come by, and existing sites have often been subjected to patchwork upgrading that nonetheless represents a substantial investment. Sometimes a tower climber is hard-pressed to find a tie-off point that allows them reach the equipment they need and yet will safely bear their weight and hold steady in the event of a fall, which generates additional force on the tie-off point.
In particular, NATE acknowledged that tower mounts are overloaded in a session dealing with that specific issue. On the show floor, Aero Solutions’ CEO, James Lockwood, spoke about the same problem on monopoles in particular.
Yet despite the seriousness of the issues that the conference dealt with, attendees also gave rousing enthusiasm to a presentation on the future that wireless technologies will play in society — technologies, presumably, that they will be instrumental in building out. Dr. Marty Cooper, inventor of the cell phone and chairman and co-founder of Dyna LLC, offered  rosy view of a future where wireless sensors offer personalized preventive health care, education incorporates gaming principles and the problem of poverty is impacted by collaborative social platforms that create more wealth.
We are already on the cusp of such developments with platforms like Twitter and Facebook, he said.
However, the most important part of the show will be whether the industry actually manages to take home the safety emphasis and information that was discussed at the conference and make them work in the real world. In a troubling reminder of just how crucial that is, news came this week of a tower hand surviving a 5o-foot fall.
Our full playlist of NATE videos can be watched here.
