Fall Protection Puts You on a Safe Footing

A young plumber looks over his shoulder to talk to a co-worker while walking across a roof. The conversation ends when the plumber disappears through a skylight opening and crashes to a concrete floor below.

A sheet metal mechanic and a co-worker are preparing to install a heavy steel cap over a roof opening. The cap, left resting against a metal structure, is caught by the wind and thrown forward, knocking the mechanic through the hole to a concrete floor below.

A roofer is installing rolled rubber roofing material on a large roof. Unfortunately, someone has rolled the material over a roof opening and when the roofer steps onto what appears to be a solid section of roofing he falls to his death.

All three true stories reported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have one thing in common: the workers who perished were using no form of fall protection.