irishtom29 said:
Until <you> go in the hole. Maybe you never did dangerous work? When I was a kid we went up on the iron with little or no protection (an American Bridge belt and a lanyard at best) and I sure as Hell liked it when useful fall protection was mandated. We used to ride the ball too, and ride the catwalks up when dressing out new refinery towers. Lots of people were hurt and and many less are hurt now.
If you can convince me fewer people getting hurt and killed on the job is a bad thing I'll call you Aristotle.
(maybe I never did dangerous work... okay
)
I got out of the Army in the early 1970's I spent the next 35 years hanging over the walls of the tallest buildings and the biggest stadiums all over the world all over the world using everything from helicopters to the tallest cranes made installing all those huge electric signs you see way up there at the top.
I worked for the largest/oldest sign company in Las Vegas. as well as other large union companies.
we
very often had to remove our fall gear when we
knew thought the inspectors were not looking in order to climb up stuff just to unhook or just get the job done the only way you can....( and yes, I have been cited/fined twice by Ohsa.. in 1978 & 1993..each time it cost about the company about $14k in fines, and it was always viewed as just a cost of doing the job )
I typically enjoyed working in many of the smaller foreign countries ( I.E. Kuwait, Mexico, etc..) because they had no governing construction safety agencies.... they're safety policy is.... "If you die on this job, you will not be paid for the day".
I believe......even with all of OHSA mandatory compliance safety rules in force,...
stupid people ..many people will continue to be injured on job sites.
From the years I've been out on the job sites,
many guys just viewed the safety gear as ...
" make sure you always wear your gear, if you get hurt, it may determine if you can retire or not "....
most safety gear is just used as an attorneys "lawsuit value" tool.
over the years, the 2 or 3 injury accidents I was involved in, they were equipment/cable failures and safety gear would have never made any difference.
I'm sure you also have a lot of experience in the trades too, ....This is the way I see things... and is just my opinion.