A contractor workman fell 25 feet from an inclined asbestos roof while laying telephone cable and suffered severe head injuries. The accident was caused by inadequate fall protection as there was no safe way to anchor a safety belt on the sloped roof. Additionally, some areas of the asbestos sheeting on the roof were decaying, further increasing the risk of falling. To prevent future incidents, roof ladders are recommended, as they distribute a worker's weight over a large area to avoid concentrating loads, and have saddles and clamps to securely rest on the roof without sliding and provide anchor points for safety belts within 3 meters of the ladder.

1. SAFETY TALK
Lessons from accident
Safety in working at fragile
roof
I nclined Asbestos Roof
A.K.Singh, Chief Manager (F&S), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd,Mathura Refinery

2. THE INCIDENT
FALL FROM INCLINED ASBESTOS ROOF
• Date of Incident & Time: 23-12-06 at 08:10 hrs
• Brief Description of Incident:
An accident took place of a contractor workman in a
refinery causing severe head injury. He was laying
telephone cable at the roof top of Maintenance
godown, when he fell down due to collapse of
asbestos sheet from the top of the roof (Height about
25 feet).

3. Another view of Broken roof

4. Inside View

5. CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT
Accident was due to inadequate use of the fall
protection system while working at height.
The possibility of falling from height had increased
further due to decaying condition of the asbestos
sheet on the roof at some places.
The main bottleneck was that there was no place to
anchor the safety belt in an inclined asbestos roof.

6. PREVENTION
• Proper safety procedure to be followed
for preventing such incidents.
RECOMMENDATION:
• To use roof ladders (special type
ladders designed for working on
inclined asbestos/corrugated roof)

7. ROOF TOP LADDER

8. ROOF LADDERS
• Basic principle is the distribution of weight of
workmen to a large area thereby eliminating
weight/load concentration.
• The saddle rests over the AC sheet
preventing the ladder from sliding down.
• The ladder can be fixed with clamps and the
workmen can tie the lifeline of safety belt to
the ladder and move around a distance of 03
meters from any end of the ladder.
• Roof ladders are light-weight and exclusively
meant for use on roofs.

9. Thank You