Prepare for Impact
Choosing and using the right ladder for the job is [...]
Choosing and using the right ladder for the job is [...]
What’s at Stake? Many types of ladders are available, and [...]

What’s at Stake? Many types of ladders are available, and [...]
A Florida construction company was issued willful citations alleging failure [...]

OSHA conducted an inspection after an employee was struck by [...]
Scaffolding violations topped the list of OSHA violations in 2009, [...]

OSHA says an inspection conducted under its Site Specific Targeting [...]

An OSHA construction safety task force that descended upon 46 [...]

An investigation of Hess Corporation’s Port Reading, NJ, oil refinery [...]

An OSHA inspection found that a worker was exposed to [...]

What would you tell a worker using a ladder in this way?
Picture This nearly always focuses on unsafe work practices, but this week we have a photograph showing workers doing the right thing. In this case, a worker is shown using a bucket and rope to hoist tools to an elevated work area. This arrangement allows workers to maintain three points of contact when ascending or descending ladders. (eLCOSH)
It's unfortunate that in spite of having ready access to a ladder, many retail workers will choose to climb racking to access stock on shelves, as this photograph illustrates. Australia's WorkSafe Victoria notes that one in five injuries in the retail sector involve slips, trips or falls.
Gymnastics should be considered one of the skills of safe ladder use. This worker is shown straddling two ladders, with one foot on each. This looks like a recipe for a nasty or even fatal fall.
Working without fall protection on any roof is dangerous, but taking life or death risks on a crematorium roof is both hazardous and ironic.
Some things you have to see to believe
Practice makes perfect, or so it is said. But workers who perfect unsafe practices and think nothing bad will ever happen to them are often sadly proven wrong.
Whoever set this ladder up must have been so focused on getting the job done that he or she forgot to follow basic safety procedures.

How many workers does it take to safely change a light bulb? Apparently more than these three guys.
Climbing a ladder requires concentration on one's placement of hands and feet, which means this worker may be oblivious to a sharp piece of metal protruding into the area just above his body.

Using an aluminum ladder around electricity is dangerous enough but this guy has raised the stakes considerably.
Would you trust this man's rather "unique" ladder arrangement? Neither would we. (WorkSafeVictoria, Australia)
This makeshift scaffold, made from ladders lashed together, screams trouble even before anyone sets foot on it.
Here's how not to transport a long ladder.
This worker could be caught between shards of glass and a hard place as a result of leaning against a window.