For Roofers – falls are the number one cause of serious physical injury and death. There are many different opportunities for workers to fall off roofs – be it roof edges, ladders, open holes or sky lights. Over 70% of deaths in the roofing industry have been caused by falls. These were largely a result of not using any means of fall prevention for workers. On December 15, 2012 new Federal OSHA Regulations for Residential Roofers go into effect.
Get one thing straight - once a fall begins – it is virtually impossible to stop the fall yourself. It is impossible due to one of the unbending laws of physics – gravity.
Human Reaction Time is about ½ second - in just that short span of time the distance and forces accumulated are considerable! You can forget what you've seen on tv - this is for real.
In that .5 seconds, a 200 Lb roofer will fall roughly 4 feet and the force on impact (if you struck the ground) would be 3,200Lbs! There is just no way a human can recover and self-arrest a fall when acting against these forces.
Look at a representative chart of Fall Distance versus Impact Force:
Distance
|
Time in Seconds
|
Arresting Force on Impact
|
7.6”
|
.10 sec
|
512 lbs
|
17”
|
.30 sec
|
1,152 lbs
|
31”
|
.40 sec
|
2,048 lbs
|
4 feet
|
.50 sec
|
3,200 lbs
|
6 feet
|
.62 sec
|
4,800 lbs
|
8 feet
|
.71 sec
|
6,400 lbs
|
10 feet
|
.79 sec
|
8,000 lbs
|
As your fall progresses, the speed at which you fall increases as does the forces of impact that will be exerted upon you when you hit the ground. You will only stop when you hit a lower surface – be it the ground or another roof/vehicle etc.
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