Scaffold Safety Vital To Keeping Workers Safe
by Joe Wheeler

Nothing good happens when a scaffold goes down.

What was an effective platform for working above ground suddenly turns into a landslide of twisting steel and crushing wood. Collapsing scaffolds have destroyed buildings, trucks, equipment, and rank as one of the major causes of death on a construction site.

OSHA requires that anyone working on or even near a scaffold be trained in scaffold safety requirements. Nevada Contractors Insurance hosted a hands-on scaffold safety class in November at the offices of Risk Services-Nevada in Las Vegas. The course was developed by the Scaffold Industry Association and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and taught by Josh Schultz, safety and loss control manager for Risk Services-Nevada and Jerry Peck, owner of Nevada Scaffold & Equipment and chairman of NCI’s Safety Committee.

Miquel Grijalva, supervisor with Nevada Scaffold & Equipment, sets
up a demonstration scaffold
at the training seminar with
assistant Jose Teran.

All of these can be avoided with proper planning and equipment, according to Schultz.

The training course was geared to help lead crew members, foremen and superintendents recognize the hazards associated with scaffolds and be able to describe the methods to control or minimize those hazards. The course satisfied the OSHA requirement for competent person training, and participants earned Scaffold Industry Association’s certificates of completion.

From The Construction Zone

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