The Importance Of Annual Fall Protection Equipment Inspections
Annual Inspections are a vital part of a fall protection plan for the work place. The fall protection plan is designed to protect both the worker and the employer. Without proper maintenance, any piece of equipment can become unreliable over time. Workers who use systems on a daily basis may not notice gradual deterioration, as there can be virtually no change from one day to the next.
Critical Equipment Failures
Picture the following scenario: Your company, with the best of intentions, has invested thousands of dollars in systems to protect your workers in the event of a fall. Three years go by, and the lifeline, while being used on a regular basis, has never been inspected, and has never been called into action. When a worker slips, and the backup protection is needed to arrest the fall, the system fails, and the worker is seriously injured. For the worker, life as he knew it is over. For the company, costly litigation will surely follow, and the good intentions of installing fall protection are negated by the company’s negligence in not following the manufacturer’s recommendations and OSHA requirements that the equipment be inspected on an annual or more frequent basis.
Everyone Goes Home
Compare the above to the following: Your company, with the best of intentions, has invested thousands of dollars in systems to protect your workers in the event of a fall. Three years go by, and the lifeline, while being used on a regular basis, has been inspected and adjusted as necessary every year, but has never been called into action. When a worker slips, and the backup protection is needed to arrest the fall, the system works as designed, and the worker escapes injury. An accident investigation is conducted and concludes that everyone did everything right. Your valuable employee goes home to have dinner with his family. As required, the company takes the system out of service until it can be re-inspected and recertified.
Which situation would you rather have for your company?
FallProof has trained competent persons with years of field experience in identifying potential fall risks, identifying deterioration of fall protection systems and equipment. We also identify other issues that could bring into question whether your facility is in compliance with OSHA and ANSI standards. Whether FallProof installed the equipment or not an inspection can be set up to gather information and document both the fall protection systems, components and equipment including components including user PPE. Our technician will tag and identify each asset and determine whether We use standardized checklists that are modified to reflect your specific configuration and workplace. Using the same checklist each year allows us to better monitor and document changes to the system. Our inspectors will enter all information into our program which produces a report/certificate that goes on file to show when and by whom the system was inspected. The report/certificate also issues a reminder when it is time for the next inspection.
Another added benefit of the annual inspection is our technicians offer refresher/user training courses on site. User training gives your employees more information and awareness on how the system they use works and ultimately keeps them safer. While on site, we are also available to review and evaluate other areas of the facility that may contain fall hazards. Our goal is to keep your workers safe, uninjured, and alive.
