Photo credit: Tymtoi on Flickr

That’s the key message from WorkSafeBC – in collaboration with five Lower Mainland construction companies representing 22 jobsites.

In BC, falls from a height accounted for 92 worker deaths and 22,610 serious injuries from 2004 to 2013, according to this 2013 Statistics publication released in September.

The BC Construction Safety Alliance is a not-for-profit association that provides services to more than 40,000 construction companies employing more than 180,000 workers. Their crew of safety advocates is also working to address this issue – along with other risks to workers.

“We lent our full support to the partnership between five of our Lower Mainland construction company members and WorkSafeBC in the recent campaign to reduce the number of falls from heights. The campaign addresses the challenge of a culture of safety that includes peer pressure and entrenched work habits. As the safety association for construction, it is always our aim to challenge the root causes that inhibit the safety culture on sites and we think this campaign does that,” says Mike McKenna, BCCSA’s executive director.

“Falling from heights is one of the top three high-risk issues facing the BC construction industry. As such, fall prevention is a key focus for us at the BC Construction Safety Alliance.”

Visit WorkSafeBC.com to find out more about this falls from height initiative. Here you’ll find a backgrounder, poster, and other online resources such as the new Preventing Falls in Residential Construction web book from WorkSafeBC, which uses animated videos to show solutions to common fall hazards in roofing, framing, siding, and formwork.

Preventing falls will also be a topic at the upcoming Bridging the Gap construction safety conference, November 14 and 15 in Richmond, BC.