Dave, a friend of mine, worked at a small plastics plant where one of his duties involved closing a valve that was on top of a vessel. Dave would regularly climb up on the structure and reach over to the valve, which was 14 feet above the floor. One day his foot slipped and he fell to the concrete floor, leaving him with a severe head injury.
Injuries are usually severe when someone falls from an elevated work height. Falls are the leading cause of worker fatalities in the construction industry. Each year, approximately 150 - 200 workers are killed, and more than 100,000 are injured as a result of falls at construction sites.