Belt up in the boom
October 1st 2007 A sad story heard all too often: A man working on a boom type access platform is catapulted to his death. He was not wearing a harness.To stop such unnecessary
deaths, a worldwide campaign called Clunk Click has been launched
The campaign calls for all users of boom type platforms to wear a full body harness with a short restraint lanyard attached to a suitable anchor point.
Clunk Click started as a grassroots initiative by the UK Powered Access Interest Group (PAIG), a joint committee of the Construction Plant-hire Association and IPAF.Major rental companies took the initiative because unnecessary fatal accidents were happening when users were thrown out of boom platforms because they were not wearing harnesses.
IPAF has launched international versions of Clunk Click, including the German “Click Clack”, the French “Un petit Clic” and the North American “Click It”.Thousands of posters and stickers have been printed and distributed to spread the message.The campaign is supported, among others, by the UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE), the Major Contractors Group (MCG), the Hire Association of Europe (HAE), the German Association of Construction Equipment Engineers (VDBUM) and Platformers’Days.Companies such as AFIUplift, Facelift,Nationwide and Niftylift in the UK, Schmidt and Zooom in Germany, as well as NES Rentals and Skyjack in North America, have committed to putting a sticker on every boom.
When and how should harnesses be used? Help is at hand in the form of technical guidance note H1 developed by IPAF in consultation with industry and with the support of safety bodies such as the UK Health & Safety Executive, the US-based Scaffold Industry Association, the German Berufsgenossenschaften, the Swiss Suva, and the Dutch Aboma-Keboma and SGS.
Should harnesses be used? The answer, when it comes to booms, is clearly yes. Reports from around the world reveal a significant number of accidents involving people catapulted out, with various causes: booms working at the side of roads being hit by passing vehicles; machines being moved while the boom is raised and hitting a kerb/bump of some sort; even just the jolting of unloading a boom from a low-loader.The common factor is the catapulting effect of being in a basket a long way from the machine’s centre of gravity, a force which is not to be underestimated.
The argument for wearing harnesses on vertical lifting machines (scissor lifts and vertical personnel platforms) is less clear cut, however.
First, by wearing a harness and restricting movement the operator can create quite a large blindspot through the platform itself and this can have its own dangers. Second, the size of some decks on vertical platforms means that if the operator did want to be free to move over the whole area while still wearing a harness he/she would need a very long lanyard.This could easily become tangled, especially if there is more than one person on board, again leading to its own problems.
The most important thing to remember is that the need for a fall protection system will be the outcome of a job-specific risk assessment undertaken prior to work commencing. In certain circumstances – most notably low-level work over water with the associated risk of drowning – this may override the general advice to wear harnesses in boom type platforms.
Be very careful with the connectors used: karabiners, for example, must be oriented the right way (longitudinally, not laterally). Finally, don’t attach any harness or lanyard to something outside the basket of the boom.Technical guidance H1 is available at the Publications section of IPAF’s website: | 
