Posted By Pradeesh Prabhakaran Dear all, I need some guide lines and advice to make a tower crane operator rescue plan. kindly send me your advice to 'pradeesh@hotmail.com' Regards, Pradeesh

Posted By Phil Whilst I fully agree with the above, as always it is down to risk asessment. If you have special circumstances you need to make the special arrangements. Also do not rely on the emergency services. Competency is all about training and constant practicing. With the kits available on the market these days, and the numerous training companies, it is not as onerous as you would think. Phil

Posted By alex mccreadie A lot of the posters having given the only way ahead. Operators medically fit and properly trained and properly equipped rescue teams. These are easy to achieve as there are plenty of good trainers out there with one having an actual Tower Crane cab and jib to train on. Not definite but the only Tower Crane rescue to a sick Operator in recent years was made difficult as the Para Medic froze when he got to high.( I don't know the Operator but I do know his son) Never rely on the availability of the rescue services who knows where they might be. Alex

Posted By Dave Merchant Until the OP says where he's from, there's not much point making UK-specific suggestions. Laws, accepted practices, equipment and training are totally different from country to country, and I'm naturally suspicious of the motives of a poster who demands the replies are sent to an email address. As to the prevalence of non-self rescues in the UK, it's a handful but it's increasing year-on-year in line with crane deployment. The number is not the issue - there are a similarly-small number of confined space accidents in the UK each year, but people accept they're expected to provide for rescue on site and not just phone for help. There are many reasons why an operator may need assisted descent, and you can't avoid them by passing a medical. Even fit people get injured. Some UK fire services have the capability to rescue from structures over 50m, some do not. In most cases retained crews will not be permitted to climb a tower crane of any form, for any reason, and will defer to a regional line team. Response times vary, but for some regions you're easily looking at over an hour before the first boot leaves the ground. NHS policy is that standard ambulance crews absolutely will not climb anything that requires a harness (including caged ladders). We have HART USAR crews in a few UK regions trained to use fall arrest, but they still climb under FS line team supervision, who provide the statutory rescue backup for the HART technician and some of the gear.

Posted By alex mccreadie Dave Nice response I wish it could be passed on to the Tower Crane Users not the hire companies. There are still far to many Major Construction Companies who put(Call Emergency Services) on their Method Statements as a get out clause for supposed Rescue Procedures. Sadly there are still to few HSE Inspectors to police this. Also some we have had meetings with saying it is our responsibility as hirer's to ensure the customer has rescue procedures in place. As we supply 99% of the Operators I can understand under the H&SAWA where they are coming from. We as a company try to educate the customer but this is difficult if they are not prepared to accept advice. Yes we do hire under CPA Terms and Conditions and have a form signed by the customer to say they have an Appointed Person available to plan and control lifting operations. Regulation wise that covers us as the hirer's but morally I still feel the need to educate. Ta Alex