Fall prevention and protection is a primary focus of construction industry safety programs for good reason. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the number one cause of construction-worker fatalities, accounting for one-third of on-the-job injury deaths in the industry.
Each year in the U.S. ,more than 200 construction workers are killed and more than 10,000 are seriously injured by falls. In addition to permanent injuries and lost lives as the result of falls, businesses lose billions of dollars each year from significant increases in insurance premiums, workers’ compensation claims, product liability costs, and other related expenses. Additionally, the low morale of seeing a severe injury to a coworker can be traumatizing and decrease productivity from the remaining workers. All of these factors make the impact of even one fall from a relatively short height extremely high, and their prevention extremely valuable.