Wendy/Darwin says, "Accepted into the Archive. (near miss)"

I'd like to nominate someone for an Honorable Mention.

Recently a Fire and Safety Inspector named Peter came to my work to do the yearly inspection of our fire devices (Smoke Alarms, Pull Stations, that sort of things.)

Peter, while new to the building, is not new to the job. He is a highly trained and highly educated individual. He holds more then one degree in Fire and Health Safety, can speak 3 different languages fluently, and is an all around nice guy who has done his job in several different countries around the world for many years.

I would like to emphasize the fact that he is a Fire and SAFETY Inspector.

The building that my work is located in is a large multi-story structure downtown, so we have a large mechanical and boiler room area down in the bowels of the building.

In the mechanical area we have a large air duct that helps draw air into the filters for the air conditioner. When I say large I mean it, this thing is over 20' tall and is located 10' above the floor of the mechanical area.

The Air duct itself is more then strong enough to support the weight of a man, and has an easy and safe access point from the catwalks on the floor above that runs next to the top of it. Indeed one of our fire devices is located over the top of it and the inspectors are required to climb out on to it in order to inspect the device.

Peter was doing just that, and had succeeded in checking the device. It was then that he decided instead of taking the safe route back down to the ground floor and setting up a ladder to reach another nearby fire device, he would save himself 5 minutes and try to climb down the side of the duct work and reach it that way, since it was almost in range if he stretched out for it.

He made it about half way down the side of the duct work while climbing in nearly complete darkness since very little light happened to reach that side of the massive air duct.

So it came as no suprise that Peter would misjudge his footing when stepping down on the tiled roof below, and naturally gravity worked it's magic and Peter plummeted the final 10' to the hard cement ground of the carpentry shop below him, punching a hole through the roof in the process.

A picture of the aftermath of Peter's decent can be found here:

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c172/Loclif/Gravity%20at%20Work/?action=view¤t=1ffc71e4.jpg

Peter survived the accident, but broke both his ankles and possibly bruised his spine in the process. I was one of the first people on scene as a first aid responder and it took two full ambulance crews to transport Peter out of the area and to the hospital.

The reasons he should qualify for an Honorable Mention?

Peter is a highly trained Fire and Safety Inspector, it's his job to know how to do a safe inspection of a building.

He had been warned by his co-worker (and senior partner) less then an hour earlier when he had been taken on a tour of the building that he should use a ladder to access the device he was trying to reach, and not climb down the side of the duct work.

The ladder was located less then twenty feet away.

Peter could have very easily killed himself if he had landed 3' to either side of where he did and hit either the table saw, or the metal crafting table.

So I think that covers all the rules, except that he managed to keep himself in the gene pool by pure luck.

Submitted on 12/14/2009

Submitted by: Dave
Reference: December, 2009, Alberta Canada

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
As a fire & safety inspector he certainly should have known better. Thanks, Dave, and if you see any writeups about this in the news that we can use as verification please do send them in to Darwin!

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Gadzooks, this guy is a brick! Complacency, ESPECIALLY in the safety inspection realm, is a recipe for sure disaster! Good one, Dave!

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