With hundreds of employees working at heights daily, drops are inevitable. While workers must always wear hard hats, these only protect the top of the head. Hands on railings, knees sticking out, and other body parts remain vulnerable. Even a hard hat may not prevent serious injury from a heavy tool or a fall.

Problem

Inconsistency is a major reason for incomplete drop mitigation programs. The Williams team recently worked with a refinery that had a high injury rate, where tool security was left to individual employees. This situation is common. Managers often trust their employees or contractors to secure their own tools, but this lack of oversight results in safety programs that cannot be effectively monitored or regulated. While most workers likely take the necessary steps to secure tools, it only takes one mistake to cause a serious injury. At the refinery observed by Williams territory managers, employees used several homemade solutions, which are never as effective as safety features engineered into the original tool design.

 

Solution

After working with the Williams team, the refinery implemented the Williams’ Tools@Height program. The refinery’s management team agreed that taking a proactive approach to safety, potentially saving lives, preventing injury and expensive damage to tools and equipment was the correct decision.

While drops may be nearly inevitable, injuries from them don’t have to be. Safety is never an add on or afterthought. Critical recent data shows that being struck by dropped objects is among the leading causes of workplace fatalities in the United States. Your technicians need tools and equipment that are secured to prevent a dangerous – or deadly – accident.

With the Williams Tools@Height System, each tool is engineered, tested and certified to be secure at height without compromising tool functionality, mobility and personal safety. Click here for more information.