Jared Rossignol takes a personal interest in construction site fall protection. As the environmental health and safety director for Randolph, ME-based Coutts Bros., he regularly sees his 45-employee team climbing between 6,000 and 10,000 structures per year to construct and maintain utility substations, distribution systems and transmission infrastructure across the Northeast U.S.
While instituting a 100% fall protection program years before OSHA mandated them has been a cornerstone of the Coutts Bros. safety culture, Rossignol said it’s technology that has resulted in the best form of accident prevention: getting workers off of the utility poles and communication towers that put them at risk in the first place.
Using unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) outfitted with both high resolution and thermal cameras, Coutts Bros. has been able to provide vital inspection and monitoring services that until recently required human climbers. “Years ago you’d put the spikes on the boots, climb up to where you were working, throw a strap around the pole and call it good,” Rossignol said. “That leaves so much open, from falls to being stranded in the event of a medical emergency.”
While the construction industry has largely focused on new technologies for job site efficiency and productivity improvements, safety executives are finding an additional array of possibilities for drones, sensors, cameras and GPS technologies to track worker movement and activity, provide enhanced visual mapping, replace workers in hazardous areas, and provide real-time data capture for safety reporting, insurance claims and litigation. read more >>
