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Fixed Wireless Equipment

Tower Climber Safety

Those with experience in the WISP business take tower safety and tower climbers seriously.

[July 29, 2008]

On the ISP-Wireless list in May, I wrote:

BBR notes: 7 Tower Deaths In 5 Weeks

Three of the accidents occurred on AT&T projects

. . .

While accidental deaths from elevated structures aren't exactly rare (there were 18 in 2006), the concentrated number of cell tower fatalities are. The industry was fatality free between December 2007 and April 2008.

[RY replied] "With 5 climbers on staff here, yours is a poignant reminder of the risks our guys take every day."

[DS wrote] "I once caught one of my sales guys making fun of climbers. I decided to take him to the roof of a 600 ft skyscraper we are on during the next scheduled install. I made him watch the guy harness up and swing out over the edge and dangle there mounting and skillfully aiming the antenna that was about to put bread on the sales guy's table. Then I took him aside and told him I never ever wanted to hear a disrespectful word out of his mouth again about any climber. I think he understood what I meant."

[SP agreed] "These guys that climb for me think at times I am too rigid and serious when it comes to climbing for anything. [We do a] walk through on the ground of what we are going to do and if we have time what we can do. Then it's no talking about tea in China or anything else but the job when on the tower. Slow and safe, carefull and easy."

[RY replied] "Our guys are well trained and confident but accidents still happen, sometimes for the silliest reasons or dumbest oversights. . . . It can get real personal at times."

[KC advised] "We use the brightly colored ("I don't even want to call them") carabiners for tools and (light weight) equipment. That way, we never confuse them. I usually have a rope on all tools, long enough to keep them attached to me or the tower while in use."

JS said that any climber can be surprised:

"I was attacked by a swarm of flying ants Tuesday as I was installing a 120 degree 900 MHz sector on top of 160 ft water tank. Luckily, they did not bite, but I had to use my bandana as face shield...wind gusts finally blew them away...In my over 10 years of climbing, I have encountered: wasps, hornets, bees, big humongous mosquitoes, flies, birds protecting their nests in dishes, spiders...one was green and yellow and I screamed like a girl when it landed on my forearm! One of my old tower climbers was going down a tower in Oilton as a snake was going up—wasp spray got it off the tower...and, yes, lightning is not your pal."

[SP concluded] "I am always a little scared of climbing a tower, of being on a rooftop or even on a ladder. Pay attention."

—End