Working Safely at Dangerous Heights

Posted February 25, 2020 by AJB Safety

Edmontonians were shocked in October 2019 by an incident in which a window washer was knocked from a swing platform outside Edmonton’s Stantec Tower in a windstorm.

The incident, which was widely covered on TV news, resulted in separate investigations by Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) office and the City of Edmonton, and in calls by many for the window cleaning contractor in question to be penalized.

The OH&S investigation is still ongoing, and is expected to last two years.

The incident, and the terrifying footage thereof, also reinforced the importance of fall protection training, as there is no question that had the worker involved not been adequately equipped with a safety harness, his fall would have been lethal.

Most of the time, the primary cost of OH&S non-compliance is financial, with fines for a first offence under the OH&S Act being potentially as high as $500,000. However, the Stantec Tower incident made clear the human toll that non-compliance can take, and how simple precautions can and do save lives.

Our Role

Among the many courses provided by AJB Safety is our Aerial and Scissor Lift Safety course. Aerial lifts are used in a wide range of industry jobs, including cleaning, maintenance, inspection, stock picking, painting, HVAC maintenance and installation, and electrical work.

Like the swing platform involved in the Stantec Tower incident, use of these lifts involves working at potentially dangerous heights, meaning that here too proper training can be a matter of life and death.

Upon successful completion of our Aerial and Scissor Lift Safety course, trainees will have a better understanding of:

● How to recognize different types and uses for aerial and scissor lifts;

● How to identify potential hazards of lift use;

● Inspection criteria for vehicles, lifts, work surroundings prior to operation; and

● Safe work practice for operating aerial and scissor lifts.

A certificate of completion will be available for download and printing upon successful completion of this online course.

For more information on this and our other safety courses, please contact us at 780-435-9074 or by email at info@ajbsafety.ca.