A hard hat has saved the life of a Queensland worker who
fell five metres from a ladder, fracturing three vertebrae, but narrowly
escaping spinal cord injury.
Forty four year-old plant operator, Peter Haines was working
on his own at a remote Queensland site, installing the last of 12 light poles
when the ladder he was working on slipped.
“I was up tying off the ladder when it slipped and I’ve
fallen approximately five metres and landed hard on my left buttock and then my
head struck the ground with force,” he said, adding that his employer was not
found at fault and it was deemed an accident.
Haines’ hard hat remained on during his fall and according
to paramedics, probably saved his life.
“They think that was what saved me from sustaining head or
neck injuries. The impact was so hard it cracked the hard hat,” he said.
After falling, Haines managed to phone his boss, however a
co-worker had seen the incident and called the ambulance.
“I was just lying there thinking ‘I hope I am alright.’ I
was trying to wiggle my toes the whole time I was lying down.
“The ambulance arrived around 25 minutes later and
stabilised me, transported me to hospital and then I was airlifted to the hospital.”
“They treated me as a full spinal injury but they couldn’t
work out why I didn’t have any head or neck injuries, which they later put down
to the hard hat,” he said.
Now on the mend and receiving intensive physiotherapy,
Haines is likely to recover from his injuries although he is unsure if he will
be able to return to his old job.
“I have to wait to get clearance with the specialist,” he
said, adding that the waiting had given him a lot of time to think and he now
wishes to educate others to prevent similar incidents.
“While it was just an accident, there could have been a
better procedure. We could have had an EWP (elevated work platform), maybe a
dozen things that could have been different.”
Haines said his employer immediately changed procedures
after the accident
“They are a good company, they got straight onto it. Now
there are no ladders, they use machines now.”
However he added that it is important that people don’t wait
for an accident and should think long and hard about the risks and potential
consequences.
“You can feel confident about doing a job – which I did –
but you have to take the time to sit there and think, ‘no I don’t want to do it
like that’, and speak up.”
“And the name of the game is that you must have your PPE.
One cheap piece of plastic kept me alive. It might not save you every time, but
it worked this time!”
Get reliable, affordable safety equipment and a wide range of PPE, simply contact L&A Safety or pop in at one of our branches in Cape Town, Vredenberg or Robertson.
