National Stand Down to Prevent Falls in Construction Week
By Susen Trail | 05/02/2021
On June 11, 2018 an employee of Konkol Construction, framing contractors, fell 14 feet from the top-plate (the upper horizontal framing piece of a stud wall) to the concrete floor below when the roof trusses collapsed. The date of his death, 4 days later, is described as "(APPROXIMATE)" by http://stopconstructionfalls.com/fatality-map/ because that is the day the employee was removed from life support.
Falls from elevations are one of the leading causes of death in the Construction Industry. They accounted for 401 of the 1,061 fatalities in the industry in 2019.
The National Stand Down to Prevent Falls in Construction week begins on May 3rd, 2021. A Safety Stand Down event can be used by employers to focus employee's attention on a specific hazard in their workplace through:
- Toolbox Talks
- Demonstrate the best way to inspect fall protection equipment
- Reinforce your methods of fall prevention
- If you don’t have Simple Safety Coach, this can be an opportunity for employees to talk to management about fall hazards, or other unsafe conditions, they see or experience in the workplace.
I say "if you don't have Simple Safety Coach," because our software includes an app where employees can provide such prevention opportunities in less than a minute, without leaving the production floor, and include pictures. The Safety Observation goes to the Dashboard to increase awareness in the company and an email alerts the Safety Manager.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration started this awareness week in partnership with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH, the National Occupational Research Agenda, and the Center for Construction Research and Training in 2014.
This year partnerships in the Stand Down to Prevent Falls in Construction event also include:
- National Occupational Research Agenda, NORA
- OSHA approved State Plan States
- State OSHA Consultation Programs
- American Society of Safety Professionals, ASSP
- National Safety Council, NSC
- National Construction Safety Executives, NCSE
- Air Force
- OSHA Training Institute Education Centers, OTI
Industries that have participated in past Stand Downs include:
- Residential Construction Contractors
- Sub and Independent Contractors
- Highway Construction Companies
- General Industry
Other Stand Down to Prevent Falls participators include:
- US Military
- Unions
- Trade Associations
- Institutes
- Employee Interest Organizations
- Safety Equipment Manufacturers
Since then nearly 10 million workers have been trained on fall prevention. Simple Safety Coach joins these stakeholders and the construction industry in encouraging you to spread awareness of the event via social media using #StandDown4Safety.
OSHA has a page on their website devoted to the Fall Prevention Stand-Down event. The webpage offers a wide range of resources including free events, videos, and more in many languages, including Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Portuguese.