“Better to be prepared and not have to face the challenge, then face the challenge and not be prepared”.
The benefits of collaboration. This reminder came up today from 12 years ago and my time working on several new MACE projects, new research buildings over several years in Oxford. From a chat over a cuppa with Danny Getjar’s crane driver after we completed the tower crane inspections and checks the conversation led to a question of “how difficulty is it to rescue a tower crane driver from his cab in an emergency?” This left me ponding the various factors to bring a driver down safely after reviewing the safety plan in place.
This lead to me engaging with Oxfordshire Fire Service Specialist Rescue Team to ask if they had ever performed such a rescue. From their records they hadn’t, but as there are a small number of such rescues in the UK each year it was not inconceivable they may need to at some point. So with the assistance of Danny the driver and Getjars use of the crane as they could see the potential benefits if an emergency occurred, and the assistance of some site team members; we spent a whole weekend with the site closed undertaking various simulated rescue senarios for extracting an operator from the tower crane cab. By the end of the exercise the Specialist Rescue Team said the simulation raised an number of challenges and issues in reality that they may not have anticipated in theory. And as such would develop a plan and execution procedures from what they had learnt.
It’s also a great reminder that we can consider many situations in theory, but there is no substitute for experience and actually doing it to gain experience of the reality of what is required.
Don’t buy a race horse and holler whoa ! Let them do what they do best.
2moCristy Vazquez-Garcia, CRIS i’m now with Komatsu. Let me know if you all need any machines or GPS. Congrats! Well deserved! 🙌