Working at Heights

Went for working at heights certification yesterday which is a necessary requirement every three years in Ontario. Got to talking with Hans about it afterwards and he reflected on how much safety protocols have changed from the 1950’s til today. Hans first day on a construction site in 1956 was at Oshawa General Hospital installing tube for Lamson working under Water Borgwordt. They were working on the 7th floor and Walter sent Hans down to get more tube. The way up and down was via a skip hoist that had a ground floor operator. Skip hoists of that time were cable driven over a pulley and when Hans stepped onto the platform the operator released the brake sending the hoist into freefall, then slowly applied the brake to catch him before slamming into the ground. As anyone could imagine Hans thought this was the end of the line. Fortunately he was unharmed and this was all for a laugh as these types of events were regular occurrences on job sites of that period. Safety was basically a non starter in these times and considered something that was your personal responsibility and that was that. In those early days for Hans you didnt require work boots, hard hats, or any kind of fall protection equipment. Needless to say Hans has many stories of workers getting injured from lack of PPE or worse, bottoming out from working at heights with no safety. Thankfully we have come far from those times, and these are very rare instances nowadays. Safety first