My understanding is that rather than climbing the tower, Paul was being hauled
up by a winch. The pulley at the top of the tower failed, resulting in the
fatal fall.
Man lifts are heavily regulated by OSHA, though I'm not familiar with those
details. However, it is not possible to be attached to a tower while going up
or down on a man lift.
When erecting a new 750 foot tower in 1999 at WJW-TV, where I was the
transmitter supervisor, there was a serious accident involving such man lifts.
A relatively new climber was coming down on the line after a day on the tower,
watching where his feet were going to land, while balancing himself against the
line. He did not notice that the line went through a large pulley at the
bottom, and lost several fingers when they were caught in that pulley.
73 - Jim K8MR
-----Original Message-----
From: Edward Sawyer <EdwardS@sbelectronics.com>
To: w1ve@yccc.org <w1ve@yccc.org>
Cc: James Cain <jamesdavidcain@gmail.com>; rjairam@gmail.com
<rjairam@gmail.com>; CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Fri, Nov 15, 2019 6:27 pm
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety
I have not heard the exact circumstances of W0AIH’s accident. What was quickly
published was his fall arrest system failed. He was clearly using a harness.
If some has the details, I think we would all benefit from learning.
Even with proper temporary guying, I would not climb a tower to take it down
that had the base legs rusted through at the concrete point.
We would really benefit from the equivalent of NASA’s pilot reporting system
where the details of events and “near events” are publicized for us all to
learn.
I for one, like many tower climbers that I have observed, do a hybrid of free
climb and clipped in. Free climb to the first set of guys is pretty common for
many of us. Clipping in as we gain height. 90% of the time clipped in while
climbing. 100% doing work. Full body harness? Not really. But haven’t used
a lineman’s belt since being a teenager.
Is it perfect? No. But if I am tired. I don’t climb. And the above is pretty
darned safe when done with good judgment. A full body harness and
carelessness, or understanding of physical strength, is not “safe” just because.
Ed N1UR
From: Gerry Hull [mailto:gerry@yccc.org]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 4:14 PM
To: Edward Sawyer
Cc: rjairam@gmail.com; James Cain; CQ-Contest Reflector
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tower safety
Ed,
I think you are applying your analysis from the wrong perspective.
In the W0AIH case, if Paul had been 100% attached to the tower, his winch cable
could have failed and he would have survived (this craziest) winching approach.
In our local case, the tower base failure as a root cause is a red herring: It
may have contributed. However, it was a process error. No one should consider
taking down a tower that was up for ANY length of time without first fully
inspecting the tower, the guying system, etc. Had these unfortunate gentlemen
taken any time to survey and understand what they were getting into, I believe
this incident may have been avoided.
As K8MR points out, it does not matter how many 1000s of hours of experience
you have, or how much of a bodybuilder you are. All it takes is 1 second of
distraction to end your life.
73, Gerry W1VE
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