Falling for Safety on Drilling & Service Rigs…

I have had some amazing experiences and met a lot of interesting people. However, there is one person I will never forget, nor his story. He was a former derrick-hand who was referred to me for a job about 11 years ago; we’ll call him Mike for simplicity. He was a really nice guy, seemed full of life and eager to find a new job. As we started to talk, Mike told me a story of an accident that he was in the previous year. The jackknife double that he was working on had just been moved to a
new lease site and the crew was in the process of rigging up. The company had actually been quite proactive for the
time, and had just installed some new fall protection on the derrick at the last hitch, including a new sealed self retracting lifeline (SRL) at the crown for fall protection while climbing the derrick ladder and working at height. Unfortunately for Mike, the SRL did not have a tagline attached when he went to climb the ladder, as the night crew had forgotten to connect it to the SRL prior to raising the rig. (The tagline obviously used to pull down the snaphook on the SRL for connection prior to use.) Well Mike, not thinking anything of it, (although wearing a harness) planned to climb the rig like he had always done prior to the fall protection installation, connected to the “easy-climber” (climb assist counter weight system) and went up the ladder. He got up to about monkey board height and needed to then climb out to one of the boom lines to unpin it. He took off the easy climber and free climbed out along a cross member, again like he had always done before. He got out to the boom line, and previously it was always very stiff to push out, but unbenounced to Mike, the night crew did do some work; they had greased it up while the rig was laying on its side. He gave it the big push that previously was required when it was stiff, but instead this time it swiveled with ease and he slipped and lost his grip.

Mike fell about 60 feet. I can’t imagine what that 2 or 3 seconds must have been like, falling through the air, but he said he did not remember much of the incident. All he remembered, was waking up in a hospital bed a few days later being told that he had shattered three vertebrae, his arm, pelvis, and 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, not to mention the medical helicopter that got him to the hospital in less than an hour. Mike told me that he had been very lucky to not severe his spinal cord, but would never be the same again. He was very fortunate to have his life, but was looking for a desk job, as he could not climb or even walk the same… like he had taken for granted prior to the accident.

Many people don’t realize, but Mike’s high profile accident may have changed many of the policies with regard to fall protection on drilling and service rigs in Canada through the Canadian Association of Oil Drilling Contractors (CAODC) and started a big ball rolling with regard to improved safety within the industry around the world. Thankfully, many workers have had their falls arrested from systems installed on rigs in the past 10 years.

Where are we today? A good percentage of the drilling and service rigs are now fit with fall protection equipment. Further, fall protection is now standard on most new rig lists before being put into service for the first time. Listed below are a few of the standard systems and equipment now on many of the service and drilling rigs around the world for fall protection while at height:

• Sealed self retracting lifelines installed at the crown and/or LADSAF ladder safety systems installed 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 self retracting lifeline used for secondary protection to the primary positioning lanyard by the derrick-hand while tripping.
• New harness designs specific for use by rig workers for added comfort and safety are now standard.
• 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, double legged lanyards and extra self retracting lifelines.

With the changes that we have seen in fall protection and rescue in this industry there are still many other systems and equipment that could be implemented for added safety. Some 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 to
  access areas up the derrick.
• Rig Floor/Deck Horizontal Lifeline Systems are now starting to become required and installed during rig up and
  down while guardrails are removed.
• Trauma suspension systems and high angle rescue products for use post fall arrest.

In approximately 10 years the drilling industry has come a long way to protecting workers from falls with the installation of systems and availability of standard issued fall protection equipment. The next hurdle to now overcome includes the challenge of providing comprehensive training for workers using the equipment; a10 minute doghouse talk just doesn’t
cut it...

Jim Graef is a professional engineer and currently the Global Oil and Gas Sales Director for Capital Safety Group based out of Houston, TX. Capital Safety is the world leader in the design and manufacture of fall protection and rescue products including the DBI-SALA and Protecta brands. Get more info at www.capitalsafety.com or call 800-328-6146.