Window Washer Dies from Fall in San Diego

that’s horrible

sad and scary stuff

Always a sad headline. Stay safe everybody.

It is so sad. These things are generally avoidable if everyone follows safety procedures. The company is known in San Diego for unsafe practices. I know people who worked for the company and have given me first hand accounts. Beyond that, they were cited by OSHA in 2015, and cited for 10 violations in 2014, now this. It’s angering…

Tell me about it!
So was it Barry or one of his guys? I haven’t heard who it was yet.
ok…nevermind, I just now saw the news clip.
Well, I’m sad to see this happened. And as insensitive as this is going to sound, I don’t know Barry personally, but like you, I know people who have worked for him and also know building managers and engineers who relate stories too. This isn’t new.

It never should have happened in the first place because chair work is freaken illegal in california period. yes people do it. I’ve had people do it. There’s no excuse for not taking the precautions and using the checklists your supposed to for inspection if you’re going to do it. Man, I’ve seen guys who have harnesses from 15 years ago. All cruchy with cigarette burns in them. Heck, half of these guys will use the same anchor to tie off to as their main line! I don’t think there were any tiebacks on that building, I did the construction clean for many of those units on that building and actually was called to give numbers on it about 4 years ago.

Barry may be on his way to jail for manslaughter. He’s done, even if he don’t.

Crazy

Actually the owner of the company campy hell for manslaughter or any charges of that caliber just a safety violation.

I thought California did allow Rope decent but only under 75’, unless otherwise accepted by the division where the heights exceed 75 feet.

Things may have changed?

Why is a guy at 61 years old doing rope descent?

I was asking the same question regarding his age. And yes jhans, that is still true. But also you can only chair if there is no other way to do it.

Codes:
https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3286.html

Go Fund Me for the window cleaners memorial fund:

These accidents are always preventable and always user error.

It’s unfortunate that you never hear what causes these accidents. Simply by knowing the cause would assist others in preventing or rethinking what they do while working.

Should be able to learns from these to prevent further accidents

Looks like there could have been more than one worker suspended because there are two lines still suspended over the side and the ropes that the user that fell had are all wrapped up around the awning which broke or came unattached from an anchor or unit connected to. So what caused the ropes to become unsecured?

This video has a little more information. It says his partner was on the other side of the building.

Hopefully word gets around here in San Diego regarding what actually went wrong and how the ropes became unsecured.

It looks like he just tied off wrong.

When an investigator says we haven’t seen any basket or scaffolding tells you they need somebody who knows how rope descent window cleaning with a bosun chair works to even figure out what went wrong.

Possibly was rigging when happened if no bosun chair was on ground?

You can see the bosun chair on the ground in one shot.

Ex-employees of Barry’s say they chair most everything even though it’s illegal because it’s cheaper and faster, and they can afford to pay the OSHA fines with profits.

Clearly the system failed. He shouldn’t have been allowed to operate with all those violations. But then again, I do not know the extent of the violations.

The news I saw said 8 minor violations.

Think they said in business for 30 years That’s not that bad really.

You can commonly find companies with serious violations and many of them.

Rumor started was the company commonly work rope descent and take the violations cause it’s still cheaper. That can’t be possible with no serious violations.

If OSHA shows up to a site they can easily violate any company for something with all the simple regulations out there, easy to do.

The cal osha rep out here is pretty cool. He don’t go looking to slap fines on anybody. But when you do stuff in his face he’s gonna whack you.

Case in point: He was with a friend of mine doing a demonstration on the roof of one of the buildings here, and while he was speaking in front of some major builders, a few blocks away were four knuckle heads doing a drop in some pretty high winds!
Thats like running a red light in front of a cop. He’s not going to just sit there and pick his nose at the light.

What you read in the osha regs was the grey area that everyone takes advantage of. But whats supposed to happen is you’re supposed to call the osha rep and ask him to green light the building…which is RARE, because there is ALWAYS another way in most cases.

If you do some digging you will see what those violations were for and I said it earlier, these guys will tie off to a vent and an airconditioner.

Here’s where you will see what I’m saying: Right here.

These guys will tie the safety line with their main on the same anchor man I’m telling you.

And there’s no way that didn’t sting, he ain’t making that much money. He WAS the cheapest “high rise” guy in SD. As long as the buildings’ engineers were on board with it and most were even after telling them that what he’s doing ain’t legal and it could mean trouble for them too, as I did on several buildings then he got the green light.

Don’t get me wrong, he did good work. Great work really. But this is what freaken happens when you freaken low ball! If he changed things around, and told these engineers: check it out, I been around 30 freaken years, I’ll call osha myself and black list this building unless you get to retrofitting some anchors on here.

You don’t think we would all listen to him if he called us all up and said not to touch that building? Dang right we would he’s been around forever.

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Ill be praying for his family. Its easy for us to assume and pick out what was done wrong or what should’ve been done, but to be honest guys this is the reality of what high risers do. some one is and always will make a mistake or miscalculation and the results are life threatening or death, thats why its so important to not only get proper training but to also continue learning and refreshing yourself on new and better safety techniques. employers need to constantly re train their employees and provide the safest practices out there. Its to easy to tie off and make a horrible mistake before you go over and you don’t even know it until its too late. I recently went to Safety Green Training and got a reality check. I thought that i had it figured out and what i was doing before was ok. I was wrong and learned so much and had to make a change in everything i do. The moment you think you got it figured out, YOU’RE WRONG! Never stop learning, and always keep an open mind guys.

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@Rockward, Sorry to change discussion but really interested what things you learned that you were not aware of to change everything you do

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I learned so much @anon46335951, so much that id have to write a book to describe it. lol, but to explain a few would be instead of using my dorsal on harness with a 6ft lanyard for fall arrests, using my sternal instead with a shorter lanyard, and ventral for decent device, also learned about new decent devices since i was stuck in the stone age with a can/cylinder. different ways to rig and rigging situations ect. OSHA Guidelines, expectations of contractor and building. i learned a lot bro. Not a lot as in i didn’t know any of it to begin with but a lot as in how to do it better and be SAFE about it. It opened my eyes a lot. I would recommend anyone to go even guys that have been in it for a long time. Everyone can benefit from the classes, rookie to a vet just to refresh.

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