We sell Fall Protection. Harnesses, Lanyards, all that stuff. We have sold numerous brands, Miller, Elk River, DBI-Sala, Guardian, and now Werner. What differentiates them? Why should someone pick one over the other?
Honestly, most people never really NEED it, except for the poor unlucky soul who’s time has come. I personally only know one person who is alive because of his harness and rope grab, when a swing stage let go and dropped 10 feet while he was on the 12th story.
Now, that being said, do you really NEED flood insurance? How often does that baby seat really get used? Not very often, and hopefully never, but the one time you NEED it . . . it needs to function properly.
So, what does that mean? “Function Properly” could mean it prevents you from falling to your death. But, if you are in a situation that you cannot be rescued within 10 minutes your body can go into “orthostatic intolerance” or “suspension trauma”. This means that your harness is killing you by cutting of blood flow. If you are wearing a poorly designed harness your femoral arteries can be pinched and you could go into cardiac arrest before you are rescued.
With this in mind, we first recommended the suspension trauma safety strap. This allowed a worker to stand in a loop attached to the harness to relieve the pressure applied to their legs. BUT, this didn’t address the real problem. The real problem is that most harnesses are designed poorly. If a harness was designed so the worker could be suspended and not risk cutting off blood flow you would have a solution.
This is why we have chosen to go with Werner Ladders’ new fall protection line. It is designed with a 5 point adjustment system, and the sub-pelvic strap is stitched in a different way than all of the other harnesses on the market. This is designed so that after a fall, there is enough room in the sub-pelvic strap, that the worker can actually pull themselves to a sitting position. This design was made possible after bringing in some super people who started their business in the rigging of stuntmen in Hollywood productions.