Why it's a good idea to foot a ladder

[kerry davies]

Nice one Brian and the inefficiency of footing techniques and the risk of inattention leading to accidents, like what happened to Peter, has led to slight changes to INDG455

The options are as follows:

■ tie the ladder to a suitable point, making sure both stiles are tied, see

Figures 6, 7 and 8;

■ where this is not practical, secure with an effective ladder stability device;

■ if this is not possible, then securely wedge the ladder, eg wedge the stiles

against a wall;

■ if you can’t achieve any of these options, foot the ladder. Footing is the last

resort. Avoid it, where ‘reasonably practicable’, by using other access

equipment.

[Marineboy63]

But how many people 'foot' a ladder properly?

 

Have a read of "Evaluating the performance and effectiveness of ladder stability devices", "RESEARCH REPORT 205" from the HSE.

 

That's a good read. I've had several arguments with intransigent technicians about how to foot properly. Pleased to see I was right.

 

Has anything similar been done regarding A frame ladders?

[iains]

One of my pet hates is when people don't listen to instructions. We have at my summer venue a tall A frame ladder to focus the FOH truss and bars, and the safest way to erect it has been developed over the years and works safely like a dream. slide it down the aisle until one foot makes contact with the orchestra pit surround. The other foot is about six inches from anything solid, so all it takes is a foot to stop it going anywhere. One person the quickly walks it up, and when almost vertical they can simply pull out the two shorter rear supports and it is up, with minimal effort. So we tell people new to simply put their foot on the ground, keep it there and do NOT try to help. As the ladder rises, they have an uncontrollable urge to reach out and try to pull the ladder up, which immediately lifts it from their foot, and it topples back down at a angle, crashing into whoever is doing the walking up. This happened, crunching poor old Darren's left shoulder. We explained forcefully that we had said DO NOT HELP. I then demonstrated and up it went. We put it away, and then in typical theatre fashion, needed to get it out again. A new person, there when the first crunch happened volunteered to just put there foot there and do nothing else. They too were unable to resist the urge to help, and down it crashed again onto the same hurt shoulder. Two injuries to the same person, doing the same job, minutes apart. The mind boggles as to what else you can say to people other than "do Not help, just use your foot and don't move"

 

Reminds me of your unloading of a flybar Paul, in this case once was a mistake twice was gross stupidity/negligence