“Gun Death” Tape Measure

This is a sad and preventable one:

A man delivering drywall to a New Jersey construction site was killed Monday when a tape measure fell 50 stories, striking him on the head, authorities said.

The 1-pound tape measure became dislodged from the belt of a worker on the 50th floor and struck construction equipment about 10 to 15 feet from the ground, according to Carly Baldwin, a spokeswoman for Jersey City’s Department of Public Safety. It then ricocheted and struck **Victim**, 58, who had just stopped to speak with another worker who was in a pickup truck just before 9 a.m. in the city’s downtown section.

…**Victim** was not wearing a hard hat, but had one in his truck at the time, according to the police report.

SO first up EVERYBODY sees the signs. I’ve never worked or set foot on a construction site in my life, but I’ve walked by hundreds of them in my life. At every entrance, and on trailers and equipment it says “Hard Hat Area” and something about EVERYBODY with no exceptions must have one. Growing up my neighbor was an architect, and he went to work every day in a nice car wearing a suit…but in the back window of his car was a hard hat, because sometimes he had to inspect his work at the cite, or help with questions on his drawings.

An other thing I heard from a story of a man who worked on tall ships. He told a story of a screw driver falling out of the tool belt on a man working in the rigging. It stuck into the deck like a dagger. Because of that most tall ships have a rule that ALL tools have lanyards affixed to the tool belt. Same goes for when crews are working on trees. Even their chainsaws have lanyards.

I assume this construction site had a rule like that as well, just like they had a rule for hard hats. Funny how that works, even if safety rules are mandated, people don’t always follow them.

Still, not a “Gun Death”, so let’s just move on.

H/T Nancy