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Not me, but i heard today of someone local who has fallen off a ladder changing a light bulb and has broken his back. Don't have all the details yet but can't imagine it was anything more than a step ladder. 

[LWC]

shouldve used wfp

sorry thats tight, hope hes ok

[charlton]

lol  thanks for the link - been a long day - the weather today has made me a right miserable fart hey .. wheres the heat wave when you need one

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Apparently he was about fifteen feet up a ladder in a factory, wet floor, ladders slipped and he fell onto concrete floor. Working alone (security guard) no phone on him so had to crawl for help with a broken back.  Going to be some health and safety issues there i think.

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Just thinking back, i know of several people who have fallen from ladders over the years. One chap smashed all his teeth out and took his knee caps off. Another broke his ankles and sternam (bit that holds your chest together at the front). I bet loads of us know of a few horror stories outside of this trade.

[LWC]

ive fallen twice, the second time i went out the next day and went wfp

first time hurt, second time knocked the wind outta me

[matt]

i know a industrial painter, fell off a ladder and it caved his head in, it took him 2 years to die i worked with his son for that time very hard

[Nathanael Jones]

i know a industrial painter, fell off a ladder and it caved his head in, it took him 2 years to die i worked with his son for that time very hard

And yet we still get the fools posting about how they'll never go WFP,.. ladders are safe as houses,.. It'll never happen to me etc etc.

Why take the risk? There is an alternative,... Save your life, Go WFP!

[xxmattyxx]

I tried shifting a ladder across a windowsill when I was up it, after about 2 weeks on the job, ladder fell away and I broke my leg in 2 places.

It took me 9 years to decide to go WFP after that, all I can say is I wish Id gone over sooner. Like 9 years sooner 

[macmac]

My best friend of 32 years was killed in a road accident last week, he leaves a wife & three children.

Now, for the rest of your life lads, PLEASE leave your cars/vans at home & walk!

Tony

[RO-Sheen]

My best friend of 32 years was killed in a road accident last week, he leaves a wife & three children.

Now, for the rest of your life lads, PLEASE leave your cars/vans at home & walk!

Tony

Sorry mate to hear your news.

[colley614]

Must admit I was thinking of getting the ladders back out after having a few niggly complaints about wfp on one offs I have been doing. After reading this I don't think I'll bother. Scares the living day light out of me. I've had a fall and one near miss and you seem to put them to the back of your mind after a while until you read something like this and it reminds you how easy it can be.

[Jason Atwell]

I fell from my little pointer last week,
  i was doing a first clean on a house and was doing the conservatory top openers, went to high up the pointer so that my feet were jammed in together.

I went to pull a foot out and step down but me and the pointer fell backwards with my feet still stuck,

I put my right arm out instictivly, this hit a bench and the force of my body coming down bent it back in a way that it should not go.

I really thought i had broke my arm, i sat on the bench till the shock had gone, and my arm hurt moving in certain ways.

This was 10 days ago, and im glad to say its on the mend, not stopped me working but has been giving me bit of pain.

So just falling 3 - 4 feet could have had really bad consequence, iv been lucky and lesson learned!

I need a longer pointer
Dont put it at to steep an angle
Go wfp as soon as possible on all suitable jobs!

[Londoner]

I worked with a bloke called John years ago. His son, who I remember as a football mad teenager, fell off a ladder a couple of years back and ended up on a life support machine which had to be switched off eventually.

There was a lot of trouble with his life insurance because he had declaired his occupation as carpenter but he was actually painting the outside of a house for money when he fell. Now I wouldn't have said that a bit of painting and decorating would have been too abnormal for a carpenter but the life insurance company siezed on it and made a big thing of it. Never did hear the final outcome but I presume they got paid out eventually.

Now, what occupation did you say when you took out your life insurance?

[simon knight]

My best friend of 32 years was killed in a road accident last week, he leaves a wife & three children.

Now, for the rest of your life lads, PLEASE leave your cars/vans at home & walk!

Tony

Spot-on!

Ladders are perfectly safe if used correctly. Like anything else in life there's always a degree of risk, but sensible people take measures to minimise that risk.

We don't live in a cotton-wool-lined safe little cocoon.

Waving a 60ft pole around in wind runs the risk of hitting an overhead power cable, but I'm certain that wfpers take steps to minimise the risk of that happening. You could trip over the hose and crack your head open on the pavement...again you're aware of the trailing hose and take measures to minimise that happening.

It's all a question of risk perception and what degree of risk one is prepared to take.

If you want a risk-free life stay in bed all day...mind you, I suppose there's always the risk of your house catching fire.

Every year we read about 4 or 5 window cleaners who die as a result of falling from ladders. Given that there's over 250,000 W/Cs in the UK that's about a 1 in 50,000 chance that it'll be me.

Statistically I have more chance of being killed in my car driving the 3 miles to see my mum for dinner....

....best i don't see mum any more :

[Captain Scarlet]

You can use thi stype of thing for lightbulbs, on the end of a wfp or trad pole:

[Captain Scarlet]

www.windowcleaningwarehouse.co.uk/shop/products/high-level-cleaning.html