"Teacher sues...school after falling off ladder adjusting theatre

[sunray]

. My old HoDrama had to be locked out of my scaff tower store after he tried to put it up and I arrived to find him and three students up there as it wobbled unstably.

This is one of the problems with scaf towers, everyone seems to be an expert, until...

[Stuart91]

This is one of the problems with scaf towers, everyone seems to be an expert, until...

 

I returned home after a gig one night to find a few drunks disassembling the scaffolding that was up against a neighbouring building. It was a Boss style tower, and they'd got to the point where it was leaning over quite alarmingly. The police arrived moments later, and had an interesting time coaxing them down.

 

I suppose questions could be asked about preventing access etc. but I'm not sure how practical that is. I've seen some building sites now with PIR-triggered alarms. Maybe schools should invest in some to keep drama teachers away from their towers.

[Junior8]

I spend a lot of time trying to argue that the access equipment needs to be considered with the rest of the theatre equipment like lights and speakers and budgeted and specified by the theatre consultant. It's an argument I often lose... "We'll buy one of those later" but, of course, by then the money has run out. Sigh.

 

Got that tee shirt for things outside this sector too in things like parish hall refurbs. Strike 'often lose' and insert 'always lost' in my case

[Andrew C]

Interestingly, at this school, EVERYONE has to do WaH, Manual Handling, Fire, and Safeguarding training. No exceptions.

 

So, if you fall off a ladder, it is your own fault. Sort of...

[Brian]

I suppose questions could be asked about preventing access etc. but I'm not sure how practical that is.

 

 

In the last 18 months or so there has been an HSE prosecution of a building company who failed to properly secure a ladder against use after a child climbed it and fell off.

[itiba]

The Costs and Case Management Conference was heard this afternoon before HHJ Saunders.

 

The judge said this was a "moderate to severe brain injury case" and despite the claimant having gone back to work, there is a "suggestion his life has been affected by quite a nasty incident".

The Judge approved an increase of the value of the claim up to £150,000k following recent medical evidence and he agreed the following costs budgets:

Claimants: £182,515.12

 

Defendants: £104,955.97

Edited March 26, 2021 by itiba

[dje]

. My old HoDrama had to be locked out of my scaff tower store after he tried to put it up and I arrived to find him and three students up there as it wobbled unstably.

This is one of the problems with scaf towers, everyone seems to be an expert, until...

 

Inversely there was a well-known corporate events venue in London with a roof height of about 8m. They have 'computer floor' (ie the stuff you can pull up in sections and run cable under... some bozo actually thought corporate events would have time for that) so can't have an MEWP.

So they had a scaff tower (Boss style) for installing rigging on the beams. It was good and quite obviously the safe way to do it.

Then one of the outriggers broke. The H&S guy said that therefore the tower needed condemning, because it wasn't safe to use it without 4 outriggers. Solution? Use the 14 Rung Zarges instead (which was mainly there for focussing) for everything.

 

That's the kind of logic you can only come up with when you do the Health and Safety qualification without having done the job first.

[sunray]

. My old HoDrama had to be locked out of my scaff tower store after he tried to put it up and I arrived to find him and three students up there as it wobbled unstably.

This is one of the problems with scaf towers, everyone seems to be an expert, until...

 

Inversely there was a well-known corporate events venue in London with a roof height of about 8m. They have 'computer floor' (ie the stuff you can pull up in sections and run cable under... some bozo actually thought corporate events would have time for that) so can't have an MEWP.

So they had a scaff tower (Boss style) for installing rigging on the beams. It was good and quite obviously the safe way to do it.

Then one of the outriggers broke. The H&S guy said that therefore the tower needed condemning, because it wasn't safe to use it without 4 outriggers. Solution? Use the 14 Rung Zarges instead (which was mainly there for focussing) for everything.

 

That's the kind of logic you can only come up with when you do the Health and Safety qualification without having done the job first.

This sort of thing totally p****s me off when all that's needed is a new outrigger.

 

All the training courses I've done for scaff towers taught to stagger the platform and ladder section above it. Yeah, I know my training is out of date, so 3 years ago I installed lighting in a new school building and the site manager said I had to have all platforms on one side and climb upthrough the trapdoors and place 'handrails' in the middle with nothing to stop them sliding sideways...

Ignorant H&S can be very wrong.

Edited March 26, 2021 by sunray

[TomHoward]

Not totally on topic but we've got one of the newer Boss towers where the handrails are fixed in a sideways "H" frame, like the end frames, rather than being loose pieces, so you just lock the whole thing on the side where you want it at the platform height and it takes care of the crossbracing too. Although you need slightly more van space for it, it goes up so quickly and is quicker to carry into the venue being fewer pieces.

[sunray]

Not totally on topic but we've got one of the newer Boss towers where the handrails are fixed in a sideways "H" frame, like the end frames, rather than being loose pieces, so you just lock the whole thing on the side where you want it at the platform height and it takes care of the crossbracing too. Although you need slightly more van space for it, it goes up so quickly and is quicker to carry into the venue being fewer pieces.

Is this the system with 4 hooks, just like a handrail bar and built in kick boards or the older type a bit like a platform without a board - https://www.laddersandscaffoldtowers.co.uk/acatalog/BPS-One-Man-Tower.html ?

 

I used a hired 6m 6x4 with the built in kickboards [not the type linked] a couple of years back but I couln't fit 2 platforms and 2 side frames side by side, I settled on fitting the side frames one rung higher so the built in kick board was well above platform height, same was true for the intermediate [single] platforms not fitting between the pips.

 

It was all so wrong I wondered if we'd been sent the wrong set of parts.

Edited March 27, 2021 by sunray