"A guy in Wisconsin fell and died. But it wasn’t the fall that killed him," Dan Ward said. "He choked to death in his harness." Ward is a safety consultant and expert on fall protection who has given fall protection seminars throughout the nation.

He did a seminar at a Sletten Construction job site, part of which was having four volunteers step into fall protection harnesses for a little demonstration.

"People are dropping like flies," Ward said. "The death rate from falls is up."

He had brought four different manufacturer’s harnesses, and had them worn by four different men of various shape and sizes. Ward did a quick review of how a harness should be worn.

"It should be worn snug, not tight. The chest strap should be where? Yes, at your sternum. The back ring should be between your shoulder blades," Ward said. "The butt strap should be where? This is the most important part. Yes, under your butt. If not, you’ll take the impact in your groin."

He’s impressed by how much Sletten’s people know about fall protection, getting the right answers almost instantly from several voices at once. But now it’s time for the real test.

Ward attaches a lanyard to the harness of the first man, gives a heave on a rope attached to a pulley and suddenly the man is dangling from the tripod - his weight captured by the harness exactly as it would be had he taken a fall.

With the man dangling, Ward pointed out how the harness can save you or kill you.

He explained how the harness takes your weight and supports it. When worn properly, it distributes your weight evenly. When not worn properly, the chest strap can choke you to death while the leg straps can cut off circulation in your legs. If a worker is hanging for some time while his co-workers arrange a rescue, such loss of circulation and pressure on the body can cause heart failure.

"But you don’t have to quickly get someone down to save them," Ward said. He showed how lowering a rope can save a life. Putting a foot in a loop in the rope took the weight off the harness, and this simple action relieved the stress on his body.

"You guys now know 95 percent more about fall protection than most of the guys in the field right now," Ward said.