I’ve always been afraid of heights but it’s never really been the height that I’ve been afraid of. It’s more of a fear of stuff breaking and then falling to my death.
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This needs an mspaint
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There was a bridge over a river in Costa Rica with these giant crocodiles that they keep fed because they’re problem animals and they don’t want them to leave. I’ve been there twice now, but the first time was under construction and not finished yet. You had to hop over one barrier to get to another one that was like mid-thigh high. I kept imagining flipping over that barrier, falling 50 feet or so to the soft mud, still alive but probably with a broken ankle or something, right in the middle of a bunch of gigantic crocodiles. I still make myself shudder thinking about that all the time - because it’s just so awful.
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Step 1 - sliding towards the ladder
Step 2 - flying through the air - pushing the ladder in front of me
Step 3 - landing on the ladder and bouncing - notice that it’s suspended above the ground
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Always tie off your own harness.
In another life I was a roof framer, doing the roof of a massive 4 story condo complex in Richmond BC. Just after lunch my boss said, “Hey! I gotta move your safety line, ok?”. I told him “No problem.”, and waited til he had untied me, and had my line relocated before resuming work.
He gives me the “all good” wave, and I continue working until the end of the day. At the end of the day, after spending all afternoon on this steep roof, wearing this massive tripping hazard of a harness, I went to untie my harness and go home. What I found at the end of my rope was… nothing. My boss had just looped the rope a couple of times around a 2x4 and called it good.
Very seldom in my life have I yelled at a grown man, but I must have blasted him for at least 10 full minutes at full volume, while he just stood there examining his boots. I’ve never been that angry before or since.
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Yeah. For a while i run a solar panel installation division for my company. Roof safety was serious serious business. Its really hard to get a bunch of 20 something year old kids to stay harnessed up when they are 1 or 2 stories up on residential roofs.
Over my 25 year career it’s amazing how much safety has changed. The shit I regularly did when I started out would get you instantly fired today. Looking back it’s a miracle I was never seriously hurt!
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Yeah. I was on the ground while a couple of my apprentice mates chased each other over the beams of a half built house shooting nail guns at each other…
Now we have rules to make sure people hold the handrail walking down the office stairs (rules which i very much agree with fwiw)
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Two I remember are
We were doing an archaeological excavation that was 6 m deep. It was crisscrossed with support beams (safety!) that needed some repairs so I was walking back and forth and up and down the beams and 2x4s in my shorts with a running chainsaw. No tie off or protection from the blade.
The other was doing backhoe tests and happily jumping down in the trench to look for artifacts with someone “spotting” in case it started to collapse. Several times I jumped out right before it caved it on me!
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Lots of hearts but no comments.
This is amazing… Send it to MoMa.
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We’re on the road heading home from vacation right now. Our condo was on the 23rd floor. Nice view, but I did not like standing at the balcony railing. I got really nervous when my wife held her phone out to take a picture. Got that nervous balls quiver.
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Suzzer is Jackie Chan.
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For a bit in my new job I used an order picker, probably goes up what, 3-4 stories high? You do your own harness but the amount of new people we find that don’t tie theirs off is crazy.
That said AFAIK accidents with those is far, far less than roofing. Roofing is one of the highest in deaths for work right?
Side note I was deathly afraid of heights and when I went to the top when nobody was looking I would hold onto the cage. You really get up there.
After awhile I would double check my harness and then climb all over shit 3-4 stories high like it was nothing.
They have roofers ranked 4th most dangerous job in US.
As fear of heights it keeps me. Humble. When I hear of some other phobia and I want to laugh about it I remind myself “You are afraid too much space in a certain direction”.
My worst heights experience was riding donkey to bottom of Grand Csnyon. Donkeys have no consideration for my phobia and insist on walking on the outside because “it’s more sturdy blah blah blah.
Anything more than a story freaks me out. I used to jump off my roof of my house into the pool all the time as a kid (so dumb)
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Lies. Everyone knows the most dangerous job in USA#1 is being a cop.
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Pilot seems super suspect. Planes crashes basically never happen.
Maybe including bush pilots, helicopters, etc.?
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I get vertigo nowadays too & I was a rock climber in my youth down at the Cliffs beside the caravan sites, we were back there a few years ago just to see it again and OMG!!! The fuck were we doing as kids was scary shit tbh with no ropes or harnesses.
Used to absail too on the Isle of Arran and take younger kids with me to gain confidence where we did use the ropes and harnesses and it was me who had to help the ones who got scared and pulled the caribina safety buckle tight so not to drop any more.
Watching anything that shows a drop and I’m scared just looking at it nowadays, definitely old age lol me.
Here is what article says :
2. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
Fatal injury rate: 53 per 100,000 workers
Total deaths (2018): 70
Salary: $121,430
Most common fatal accidents: Transportation incidents
Aircraft pilots fly and navigate airplanes, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. In this profession, pilots are responsible for checking the condition of aircraft before and after flights, ensuring the aircraft is balanced, and planning for fuel and flight plans. Pilots also operate the aircraft, communicate with air traffic control, and monitor the aircraft’s systems during flight.
The majority of aircraft pilot fatalities occur in crashes of privately owned planes and helicopters rather than on regularly scheduled commercial jet aircraft.
Seems like there are probably a not a lot of pilots, relatively speaking. There data puts it at like 125k-130kish pilots in US I think. My abacus is sticky.
Don’t a lot of bush pilots in Alaska crash?