Priority Risk were called to a Georgian house in London which had been converted into flats to examine the gas flue arrangements which were all located in the light well of the building, please see Gas Flue Issues also located in this section of the Website. While we were there the Building Manager asked us to take a look at his newly installed fall prevention system because he didn't trust it. The video above was taken by us while onsite, in our view vindicating the Building Manager's concerns. We did not believe the fall prevention system was installed robustly enough to prevent a fall. We took our concerns and this video to the managing agent who arranged a meeting with the installing fall prevention company. We were pleased because as far as we were concerned we were saving a life raising the concerns that we had raised. The meeting did not go well. The fall arrest company insisted that the system was safe as installed and provided sufficient pull test to meet with the British Standard. The fall arrest bracket noted in the video however is not in tension it is challenged with rotation hence the argument placed was not relevant. The meeting broke up with the fall arrest installer claiming that 300mm at least of stainless tread rod was inserted in the parapet wall and it was safe to use. We recommended a second opinion be sort, but the Client believed we were over reacting.
It was used by a Satellite Engineer, who stumbled and tripped on the roof, fortunately not over the edge but forcefully enough to load the fall prevention system which caused the failure noted in the pictures above. No one was killed or injured as a result of this but if you have a system installed in this manner ensure that the brick work will take the loads implied not just the resin holding the bracket to the brick.
