Safety blunders
A day on the tiles
Precarious maintenance work caught on camera
Double fault
What happens when you can’t find a hammer? You use a digger instead if you’re on this site
Table manners
According to these two, placing a ladder on a table is fine - just make sure it’s covered with a tablecloth
Angling for trouble
Using a ladder should be fairly straightforward, but here’s how to really complicate things …
Glazing over
Thanks to Martin Szajnar for sending in this snap - although he might want to give it to the local neighbourhood watch. As he points out: “Any more pressure and he’ll be done for breaking and entering.”
Health and Safety man suspended after falling off ladder
Health and safety trainer suspended from duty after falling from a ladder during a demonstration
Feel the burn
If this worker was pushing the car, perhaps this much effort would be justified. But a lamp? He’s not going to win the World’s Strongest Man competition like this. Thanks to David King for the photo
A room with a view
Thanks to these workers, guests at the Hotel Tauernhof can enjoy a picturesque Alpine scene enhanced by the drama of a man teetering on the edge of a roof. Colin Burdon captured the scene
Four go roofing
Thanks to Colin Govier for this photo in Sibiu, Romania - it looks like he was taking quite a risk just standing underneath these workmen.
Ladder boy falls at the first hurdle
Warning: Workers gambling on health and safety are likely to lose their stake
Safety blunder: Sliding high
A little slime and seagull droppings won’t deter these foolhardy painters
Dropping in for a pizza
Thanks to Martin Corbishley for spotting this demonstration of the lengths some people will go to for a decent Quattro Stagione
Not-so-smooth landing
Thanks to John Potter for this photo taken in Cheltenham. “At least the spiked railings will stop them hitting the ground!” he comments pointedly
Always wear clean shoes …
Paul Southon sent in these astonishing pictures taken from a flat in the centre of London
Safety blunder: On-site showering facilities for cyclists sadly lacking
Health and safety manager Brian Butler sent us this picture of a man taking a bath in a bucket
It's just a step to the left ...
Our thanks, and the usual £25 voucher, go to Mukesh Modhvadia, a commercial manager at the King’s Cross Redevelopment Programme, for these aerobic pictures of a window cleaner living dangerously.
A bridge too far
Simon Whitehead spotted this instructive scene in Dulwich, south London, which demonstrates that the “oh, it’ll probably be okay” approach doesn’t always work out …
Turning heads
This scaffolding attempt in the Derbyshire village of Shirland is not only perilous for the user, but was proving a serious hazard to all the motorists turning to gawp
Where rigans dare
Andrejs Trabo in Riga, Latvia, spotted this “mountain climbing champion” demonstrating an unbelievably stupid solution to the problem of not having a long enough ladder
Scoop!
Thanks to Alan Robson of Innov8 Safety Solutions for spotting this novel use of an excavator at the Salford Quays development in Manchester. I’m sure it’s a great way to travel …
Extending historic authenticity to safety standards
Authentic restoration methods have their place, but safety is not one of them
How not to excavate a basement: 'This is the closest I dared to go'
Colin Burden kept his distance when he saw this house teetering on the edge of a large muddy hole
You couldn’t make it up
Throughout 2010 readers shared their favourite health and safety horrors from around the world
Double act
Mark Hammond says: “These men in Dubrovnik were making quite a good job of pointing the ridge tiles, but it makes you shudder to think how they got up there, or down again!”
Extreme mowing
Nick Rhodes, of Oxfordshire housing association Sovereign Vale, sent in this photograph taken by one of his tenants. “This is a novel way to cut the top of a hedge,” he says.
Rough trades take chance in Notting Hill
This window cleaner was risking life and limb opposite the Rough Trade record store in Notting Hill, appropriately enough
Two bags of ballast = One dimwit in a hi-vis
Thanks to Gavin Williams of Wates for spotting this evidence of the seesaw theory of mathematics
Balance of terror
Our thanks to Nigel Barrett for this picture of daily life on a south London trading estate.
Off his perch
Martin Ward, the construction director of Persimmon Homes, came across this set-up in Mauritius. He says: “There are vertical reinforcing bars below him and the cross supports are nailed to the block wall.”
Fuoco! Fuoco!
Thanks to Rob Kirkaldy of Spectrum Acoustic Consultants for this site scene in Sorrento, southern Italy. Insurers of a nervous disposition may want to look away
Don't look up
Rebecca Shorter is a member of the construction team at solicitor Cripps Harries Hall, who are “all big fans” of Building’s health and safety blunders.
Trouble at the top
We’ve wandered off site for this week’s picture, which is of civil engineering interacting with a diverted bus on the Portobello Road in west London. Our thanks to Nabil Hanafi for snapping it
cuckoo
Mike Plymsol saw this skywalker at the 2,600m summit of the Jakobshorn mountain in Switzerland
1-peak challenge
It was Warren Pyle who spotted this “truly safety-conscious scaffolder” lugging some heavy planks up a roof. Don’t fancy using the perfectly good scaffolding tower? Nope? On your own head be it …
Stool of hard knocks
Karol Olszewski was on his lunchbreak near London’s High Holborn when he spotted this nonchalant window-fixer posing a significant danger to himself and passers-by
Is it a crane? Is it a mobile access platform?
It’s both, apparently – or so these workers seem to think
Warning: Hazard sign
It’s always good to hear from our American readers, so thanks to Dave Hermanson, vice president of Capital Power in Illinois
