How many times have you climbed over a handrail or rooftop and not checked your harness? Once, twice maybe....more?
We all get into the situation where we take our harness off for a quick brew, come back 20 or 30 [?] minutes later - put the harness back on then disappear over the side to finish off the job. How many of us check it again before we go over?
I remember a freezing job over in Norway in the winter of '97 - minus 15 it was EVERY day! The work was going slowly and we had to take regular breaks [every 45 minutes!] "Great" I hear you say - I suppose it was, only we didn't realise at the time that there were an awful lot of keen climbers walking around on that job. People were coming up and looking at our equipment [it was all brand new - now isn't THAT unusual!] and chatting in general about Rope Access. They seemed like good people and we chatted every now and then. We left our gear in an open container [the doors kept freezing!] while we had our breaks.
One day - after one of our now famous tea breaks - we were getting ready to go over the side. Once everyone was ready, I checked the main anchors and ropes before anyone used them - they were all fine. The first guy was getting his gear onto the rope when I noticed that one of his cows-tails was loose [REALLY loose]. I called him back, looked at his harness and found that the maillon, cows-tails and krabs were slackened off.
We checked the rest of the harnesses [6 in total] and found that ALL of them had been tampered with. We tightened everything back up, re-checked them then carried on with the job. We were already in the habit of checking our harnesses EVERY time we used them but I can think of maybe two or three times during that job when it didn't get done. What would have happened if they weren't checked this time?....I hate to think.
It was two days before we were told that "some people" had been in our container trying to steal equipment. They had been disturbed and had to leave the gear on the harnesses. We made sure that we locked them up after that.
When the job was finished, myself and the other Level 3 stayed an extra couple of days to manifest and back load the gear. We were assured by the client company that they would be sent back to the UK the following morning. Three weeks later the container turned up at our office - EMPTY!
Looks like they eventually got what they wanted. I know it's something that can be easily forgotten but look after that harness, give it a thorough check EVERY time you use it. If you must leave it out on the job, try and hide it inside a lifejacket or bag. If you have a gear container put it in there. Don't provide visible temptation for the more light fingered and curious amongst us.
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