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A walk, worth remembering
‘The walk’, an English film, starring Phillipe Petit, was once regaling audiences as it talked about a high-wire artist and his dream of walking between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. During his walk, he, undoubtedly, faced death on every step on the tightrope.
Similarly, tower erection crew, who work at an elevated height, especially at towers, aren’t high-wire artists but grapple with the constant threat of encountering falls, structural collapses and several such hazards. There are chances that, at some point, safety might fall through a gap in the layers of cellular service providers, tower owners, turf vendors, contractors and subcontractors arrayed over them.
In addition, untrained and uncertified climbers, for e.g. electricians and incident responders, first-aid providers – all of them contribute to unsafe working conditions. Here’s an example:
A worker was climbing down a 100-feet telecommunications tower, when suddenly, he loses his footing as an eagle flies by. The ladder safety system (his body harness and cable safety sleeve) fails to arrest his fall. The cable safety sleeve did not engage correctly to break the worker’s fall, and he plunged 90 feet this death.
Probable causes of incident were
Had he taken his learnings seriously and remained mindful of the gravity of his negligence, the incident could have been prevented. This situation is highly likely and the training for such a situation also warrants the trainer to be untied/ loosely tied.
A look at the possible remedial & preventive methods here would lead to the conclusion that training for such a real time scenario could have negated the ill-fate. Broadly, tower erection safety training methods could be employed in 2 ways:
Physical demos have huge risks like the omnipresent loss of life threat; This is where animated safety videos pitch in. Animated safety videos can amalgamate the above challenges and help manifest thought processes for workers and employers – in stunning detail and accuracy.
Animation is a powerful tool to demonstrate an idea and form of storytelling scenarios, adding a visual element that captivated the audiences for better learning and recall. Animated tower erection safety videos can create a premise where the industrial learnings are easy to understand, effective and engaging at the same time.
Tower Erection Safety : Everybody’s job
The communication tower industry is fraught with dangers and safety, at times, is compromised at such sites. Pressure to complete tower erection while putting safety on the sidelines is a common practice.Factors e.g. poor planning and improper equipment can derail the whole premise.Others include:
Electrical hazards
Employee fatigue
Inclement weather
Drop hazards
Insects and animals
The onus of safe execution rests with the workforce as well as the employer. There’s a great deal of overlap in the duties of various parties. Any gap in responsibility for ensuring training, safe work practices or scheduling can take a toll on workers’ lives
Inducting safety on-board
While erecting towers, no matter how long or complicated are the safety procedures and considerations, through animation, one can condense them to a few minutes.
These videos let the stakeholders visualize situations that are difficult to depict through conventional training methods – e.g. A life-threatening condition wherein a tower incident needs to be recreated, an electrical emergency etc. Some advantages are:
Visual Learning
Conveys the message repeatedly in the same way. This conveys the same message every time is a great alternative to conventional training.
Universal Understanding
Can be introduced to any demographic individual. Since messages are visual and live aids, like the parts, can be a part of the demonstration, tower erection training can be introduced anywhere, without lingual/ social or any other boundary.
Content memorisable
Easy to understand and recall. The videos demonstrate equally well, the concepts as well as their practical application.
Standardization
Same action items are reproduced without deviations. This helps standardize the whole experience of learning. Same videos, translated/ transliterated, are of service globally.
Quick & engaging training
Only video infrastructural preparedness required. The animated videos teach concepts at the same time while holding the audience’s attention.
Compliance & Emergency preparedness
Can be arranged quickly while adhering to norms. Even drills & mock ups can be virtual in today’s remote working populace.
Incident Prevention
No human or tool losses. Since no individual is required, simulations can be a great way to teach. Animation is just the answer here.
To save the workers from serious injuries and fatalities, it is necessary that the medium through which they receive training should have the potential to make it easy and relaxing, especially like a movie. Animated videos communicate the intended message and do not cause much of a mental strain.
Safety in tower erections mean that towers are properly maintained, safely accessible and equipped with engineered anchorage points. In case of workers, they must be trained and timely retrained while also being aware of conditions that could affect their ability to climb/ alight safely, etc.
Animation increases the reach and quality of safety training, making them ideal to provide last minute, just-in-time learning support.
Conclusion
Tower Erection Safety has a long mile to cover. To reduce infrastructural, capital & manpower losses, it is imperative to have a robust, simple and easily replicable training asset. Animated videos easily cover these while improvising on other ends like reducing down time and health hazards in-situ.
You may find further information for regular and customized animated safety training from Tech EHS. Contact us, to get quicker replies.
