Experts in fall protection

By Capital Safety Group

Fall protection consistently ranks among the most cited violations. Employers have a duty to provide fall protection systems to all employees working at height. With all the options out there, selecting a complete system appropriate to the application can be quite a task. Capital Safety is the leading designer and manufacturer of fall protection equipment including the industry’s most respected brands, DBI-SALA and PROTECTA. With the largest North American sales organization ready to assist and provide expert local support, employers are sure to find the equipment they need to remain compliant and cost conscious with Capital Safety Group.

Capital Safety Group benefits from over 50 years of experience and innovation expertise to guarantee even more security and comfort to protect workers from falls when working at height.

As a worldwide leader, Capital Safety Group not only offers a wide range of products, systems but also solutions (such as side entry confined space, intrinsically safe Fall arrest, compact blocs, …) and services (such as survey, maintenance and bloc repair, training, advising, …).

DBI-SALA represents the ultimate in fall protection equipment for any work environment. Customers rely on DBI-SALA for excellence, innovation, and a broad range of solutions. DBI-SALA’s innovative products go beyond traditional fall protection equipment. i-Safe™ Intelligent Safety System, for example, is an innovative RFID system for paperless inventory and inspection logging that reduces time by well over 30 percent.

PROTECTA represents fundamental fall protection at an exceptional value. Customers choose PROTECTA for the products’ reliability, quality, and economy.

The PROTECTA line offers basic, low cost fall protection gear, keeping the cost of safety programs low, while keeping workers safe and in compliance with applicable standards.

Both brands are backed by the best training, technical assistance and customer service in the industry.

Capital Safety also offers fall protection training courses for all levels. Its new programs will educate participants on the requirements of the new standard and provide practical, hands-on experience. Training programs are available to meet the requirements of authorized and competent person/rescuer, program administrator, qualified person as well as inspection, confined space, climbing and trainer courses.

Capital Safety’s training courses engage the participant. By creating courses that demand active participation, the student becomes involved in the learning process, increasing comprehension and retention. Capital Safety provides application and employer-specific training by providing a variety of core training programs and supplementing them with custom training. Training Courses are provided either in our training centers or onsite.

Solely manufacturer dedicated to fall protection equipments , Capital Safety Group has 8 operating sites, a presence (sales and distribution) across 70 countries, 3,000 trained distributors and more than 10,000 products/systems.

As annual inspection and maintenance have to be done; trough our network we do have a worldwide coverage for associated center as maintenance and bloc repairs

Capital Safety is committed to quality, breadth, expertise, training and innovation, which have led to these industry-leading accomplishments:

• Largest and most innovative research and development department in the industry
• Specified by more industrial and oil companies than any other fall protection provider
• Top industry technical experts and world class training facilities

Capital Safety provides more than just products; it offers absolute confidence:

• Confidence that you are doing everything possible to ensure total compliance
• Confidence that you have adopted the best business solution to ensure compliance, productivity and cost-effectiveness
• Confidence that your employees will go home safe each night

Fall protection is a relatively new innovation on drilling and service rigs. In the past 10 years, safety equipment and enforcement have come a long way, and as a result, deaths due to falls have been reduced. Many workers today understand the dangers associated with fall hazards, but challenges still exist. There’s no better way to describe why fall protection is so important than to share the story of one man whose life has been altered after a fall.

Mike was working on a jackknife double that had just been moved to a new lease site and the crew was in the process of rigging up. His employer had installed a new sealed self-retracting lifeline (SRL) on the derrick at the last hitch. The SRL was located at the crown for fall protection while climbing the derrick ladder and working at height; however, the night crew had forgotten to connect the tagline, a device that pulls down the snaphook on the SRL for connection prior to use.

Aware of the oversight, Mike climbed the rig connected to a climb assist counterweight system as he had done before the installation of the SRL. At the height of the monkey board, Mike detached the climbing system and climbed out along a cross member to unpin a boom line. The boom line had always been stiff and difficult to push out. Unbeknownst to Mike, the night crew had greased it while the rig was lying on its side. He gave it a big push as usual, but this time it swiveled with ease and he slipped and lost his grip.

Mike fell about 60 feet. When he woke up in a hospital bed a few days later, he was told that he had shattered three vertebrae, his arm and pelvis, and had been almost cut in half when he hit the guardrail installed around the rig floor. In hindsight, it had been the guardrail that had likely saved his life as it had absorbed much of the energy of the fall. Emergency services were also to thank for getting him to the hospital in less than an hour. Mike was lucky that the fall did not sever his spinal cord. In fact, he’s lucky that the fall did not kill him.

Mike’s accident 12 years ago was one of the catalysts that began a wave of policy changes regarding fall protection on drilling and service rigs in Canada through the Canadian Association of Oil Drilling Contractors (CAODC). It also initiated changes to safety systems and programs within the industry around the world.

Where are we today? A good percentage of drilling and service rigs are now outfitted with fall protection equipment. Further, fall protection is now standard on most new rig lists before being put into service for the first time. A few of the standard fall protection systems and equipment now on many service and drilling rigs include:

• Sealed self-retracting lifelines installed at the crown and/or ladder safety systems for protection while climbing the derrick ladder.
• A sloped-line cable or boom arm installed over the monkey board to provide an anchor for a smaller SRL used for secondary protection to the primary positioning lanyard.
• New harness designs specific for use by rig workers for added comfort and safety.
• Horizontal lifelines installed for use by workers when rigs are laid over and in other areas such as above the BOPs and stabbing board.
• Fall protection equipment lockers including anchoring products, twin-leg lanyards and extra self-retracting lifelines.

Despite the changes that have taken place, there are still many other systems and equipment that could be implemented for added safety. These include:

• New sloped-line escape systems to replace the aging and often unsafe Geronimo escape system.
• Man rated tuggers (winch lines) and/or new load limiters that can be used to safely raise workers to difficult access areas on the derrick.
• Rig Floor/Deck Horizontal Lifeline Systems to be used during rig up and down while guardrails are removed.
• Trauma suspension systems and high angle rescue products for use post-fall arrest.

In 10 years, the drilling industry has come a long way in protecting workers from falls.

The next hurdle to overcome is training. Comprehensive training programs should be provided for all workers using the equipment; a 10-minute doghouse talk just doesn’t cut it. As Mike’s story demonstrates, even workers trained in the use of fall protection equipment can make mistakes or skip donning a harness and tying off to complete a quick task.

The thing to remember is that falls, like car accidents, don’t discriminate. They can occur at the most familiar locations at any time because workers and drivers alike let their guard down.

Please contact us via:
E: oilandgas@capitalsafety.com or information@capitalsafety.com
T: +33 4 97 10 00 10
F: +33 4 93 08 79 70
www.capitalsafety.com