Posted on 06/01/2008 7:00:20 AM PDT by SamAdams76
SUN CITY CENTER - The first lightning bolt cracked in the dark clouds a few hundred yards above John Jacob's head as he worked atop a 200-foot cellular phone tower in south Hillsborough County.
With wind swirling and sheets of rain pouring over him, Jacobs kept bolting together thin steel beams while long, white cellular transmitters for AT&T, T-Mobile and Metro PCS buzzed around his head, relaying calls, text messages and Blackberry e-mails in a six-mile zone along Interstate 75.
Then a second lighting bolt crashed closer, then a third even closer. That persuaded the 14-year tower veteran to tie up his equipment and climb down the thin, foot peg ladder rungs one by one to the gravel ground below.
"I don't care about the wet," Jacobs said, shaking water off his soaking wet safety harness. "But lightning was starting to hit all four sides around." He decided it was time to get down.
This job that Jacobs does almost every day has somehow emerged as the most lethal in America right now.
Between one and four cell tower workers die a month in this tiny corner of the high-tech wireless world as America's demand for the latest wireless gadgets runs headlong into the relatively low-tech safety employed by workers climbing hundreds of feet aloft. The vast majority of U.S. cell tower climbers work for little-regulated, small Mom and Pop outfits subcontracted by big wireless. Despite some recent safety improvements, the rate of lethal accidents among these roughly 9,800 workers is higher than loggers, coal miners or the offshore fishermen glorified by cable television shows.
According to statistics cobbled together by industry groups, 10 workers died in 2004, 48 in 2005, 18 in 2006, and eight so far in 2007. Some workers fell 80 feet to their deaths; some fell 1,100 feet, about twice the height of Tampa's tallest skyscrapers, likely reaching 125 mph.
Fed up with the deaths, one Florida wireless group has started an online death tally from scattered news reports. Two months ago in Jacksonville, a 21-year-old worker from Indiana fell 100 feet to his death while rigging a tower for an upgrade.
Florida, in fact, has become an especially dangerous environment, as companies contract more workers to brace towers against hurricanes and add capacity for a market hungry for cell phone service.
"The tragedy is that any small infraction becomes catastrophic," said Winton Wilcox, president of the industry's only official tower training group, ComTrain LLC of Monroe, Wis.
There are some efforts by federal regulators to address the risks, but with evermore demand for new multimedia wireless links, Wilcox and others worry more cell tower workers will die. Falls
Besides lightning risk, Wilcox said nearly all fatalities come from falling after workers did not use safety clips, or they mistakenly clipped into a too fragile point, or gear failed amid a fall. Federal investigations are ongoing, but the industry group Wireless Estimator has recorded a string of deaths, including:
• June 2006, 30-year-old David Brown fell an estimated 500 feet to his death in a rural area near Pensacola named Bonifay. Brown's mother Bonnie Melton said, "This was going to be his last day of work there. He was going to quit and go back to college … He planned to take care of his kids and pay off some bills."
-- May 2006 in Oakland, Iowa, three workers age 57, 27, and 19 fell 1,100 feet when a support line failed. That included the owner of the tower repair company.
-- July 2007, in Eudora, Kan., outside Lawrence, two workers, aged 54 and 33 fell an estimated 500 feet when a bucket holding them broke. What it's like
Almost no aspect of tower work is easy, even for the seemingly brave and fit, says Mike West, 52, a climbing instructor, rescue worker and owner of Jacksonville-based Florida Telecom.
"A lot of people think they're in good physical shape, but lifting your whole body, plus a 20-pound climbing harness, tools and supplies - 100 feet straight up without stopping - the next morning you'd hardly get out of bed," West said.
Then, once up on a tower, workers stand on metal rails and let go with both hands to work. "I've seen people so afraid they can't let go." Climbers typically have two, six-foot-long lanyards. To move, they unhook one lanyard, reposition and re-clip end-over-end to stay connected to something.
Most cell phone towers reach 200 feet, but others on TV towers reach 1,500. Workers there can spend 10 hours aloft. "You don't climb down to eat your lunch. They send it up to you on a rope," West said. Not even a bathroom break warrants climbing down. "Nobody's going to notice you going up there."
Lightning poses its own risk, especially in Florida. Raphael Nadal was on a tower last month that was hit twice within an hour.
"First the antennas start buzzing real loud," Nadal said. "Then the hair on your arms stands up straight." If there is time, he jumps to smaller steel beams less likely to attract a hit. Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, he says, "Then you just hold on tight for the boom. It's the loudest thing you ever will hear." Modern profession
Unlike other inherently dangerous jobs (miner, firefighter, soldier), working on a cell phone tower is a truly modern profession.
Since the invention of the cell phone in the early 1980s, wireless companies have carpeted the nation with about 190,000 cell "sites." But those companies have mostly sold their towers to companies that rent space to multiple carriers.
Those companies often subcontract maintenance. That means a self-employed tower worker may be climbing a tower owned by one company, to repair an antenna owned by another, with safety wires installed by another company, or not.
While most states regulate professions as prosaic as barber, U.S. states require no license to climb a cell phone tower. That breeds risk, said Rob Medlock, an official in Cleveland with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration who took on climber safety as a personal project.
"There are some good folks with established resources, safety training and they're doing the right thing," Medlock said. "Others think in the short run they can cut corners."
Medlock said deaths in the industry attract less attention because the workers rarely work for big-name cell phone providers that may never hear of their death. Fell, and lived
Workers rarely survive falls of any height. Four years ago, Michael Cooper, a supervisor at Betacom Inc. in Tampa was a hundred feet up a cell tower in Dade City working in the rain.
"I was moving from one place to another, it was wet and I just slipped," Cooper said, taking a deep breath. In an instant he went into the quiet of mid-air. "I just thought about my family. I saw them." Would he die right now, right here, he wondered. Is this it?
Then he reached the end of his six-foot-long safety rope. It jerked tight, but held, and he hung from his harness like a fish dangling on a hook.
He reached out to the tower, and with his limbs shaking he started to climb down. He sat on the ground for a while and didn't want to climb a tower again.
After a couple weeks, he regained confidence and started climbing again. "You want to be scared, a little nervous," doing this job, Cooper said. "But if you get paranoid 'Am I going to fall, am I going to fall?' then you can't do your job." Training
Knowing the risks, some industry veterans want universal worker training and licensing.
That's in part to address cases like a 2003 fatal fall in Iowa. According to state records, the manager of that tower company would first send job applicants climbing to the tops of towers, then "train after we can see if they can hack it."
Recently, OSHA made a partnership with the National Association of Tower Erectors to help organize training, certification and research. Meanwhile, Wilcox of ComTrain started offering hands-on training and certification.
Costs for training and equipment can add up to $3,000 or more for a novice, West said, a significant investment that small companies don't always make. Future
Meanwhile, the demand for cell tower workers will likely only build, especially in Florida where cellular access is both vulnerable to storms and vital in their aftermath.
Together, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint/Nextel expect to spend at least $396 million in Florida in 2007 on upgrades for storm protection and new services like live TV on cell phones.
Still, many deaths go unnoticed. Despite some progress, government regulators still record deaths in a myriad of categories: steel workers, electricians, etc., masking the problem, Wilcox said.
"They (government regulators) may not have a clue how many people die," Wilcox said. "That's partially our fault, but maybe a half dozen of us are committed to finding that quantity when the majority of our industry is not interested in quantifiable results because they would like this to remain an invisible industry."
Riding to top of 1300 foot tower
TV tower antenna being removed
Finally, the hidden agenda. One more thing that needs to be "regulated" to protect the poor and helpless. Can't have any activity going on without the gummint looking over our shoulder now, can we?
/johnny
I climbed a 300 foot radio tower while in college in 1969. The pay was $25. I carried up a satchel of replacement tower lamps and near the top, the tower moved back and forth about three feet.
Slightly aside, I had a satellite TV installer at my 14th floor condo. He climbed up and onto the porch railing to reach over the dish and adjust something on the LNB.
Basically his entire body was hunched over 150 feet of thin air with nothing but the flimsy satellite mounting protect him from a fall.
I used to do a lot of multi-pitch rockclimbing of up to 1,000 feet or so, where protection and safety are paramount, so when he was safely back on the porch I gave him a pile of what-for.
I was going to say the same thing. But, after further reflection I think the author was pointing out the absurdity of regulating barbers and not having, at least, some sort of oversight over a very dangerous profession.
Good point. However, I’ll wager there is a lot more money to be made from regulating barbers and hairdressers.
Unless they jack up the cell tower repair licensing fees...:)
Give me the chills just thinking about it...
Ever been in a tall building on a windy day, then look at the water moving in the toilet. They move a bunch too, but at a frequency we don’t feel.
The best way to avoid government standards and supervision is to start an industry wide safety group to train workers, set standards and inspect equipment.
The very dangerous North Pacific Fishing group set up a training and standards group and has been responsible for saving a lot of lives.
One Thursday the wind blew the antenna down and there was no authorized pole climbers to replace it.
My Radio/TV Sgt wouldn't/couldn't climb the pole but he told me that I could grant myself a waiver and reinstall the antenna. We Jury rigged two antenna so that one pointed to OK City and the pointed to Dallas. I included a spare linear amplifier. I climbed that pole and installed the antennas. Now we could pick up signals from both locations and since the Cowboys were blacked out in Dallas they could select the other antenna and watch the OK City Broadcasts.
My boss was the Base Commander and he gave me a medal for my ingenuity with the caveat the Sgt's club and O club were similarly antennified!
Yehaa! Go Cowboys!
2 things I’m really afraid of: Heights, Lightning and #3, burning to death. That’s why I give gasoline tankers a wide bearth.
A few years ago one of our crews was going to erect a substantially smaller tower but it was their first. The spent a couple days planning and even dress rehearsals on the rigging and harnesses.
That morning I sent out an email to the crew and all interested parties thanking them for their attention to detail and attention to safety matters in regards to their morning erection and how important it was for the erection to remain rigid while mounted, etc.etc.
Later they told me that they could hardly read my email without smirking or literally LOL.
I’d have really hated to been those Spanish guys who built the Camino del Rey in 1901. I wonder how many of them died during construction?
Unbelievable video. I’d need to pour a pitcher of margaritas down my throat to get the nerve to go up there but then I’d be too intoxicated to walk those steel beams without falling off.
I think the OSHA manual takes 11 pages just to describe a ladder. And tells you that a catwalk handrail must be 42” high but doesn’t say whether that’s to the top, center, or bottom.
ADA says telephones must be mounted to the wall at 48” above the floor. I asked an ADA inspector if that was to the top, center, or bottom. He said it depended on the phone and couldn’t clarify anymore than that. Seems that any phone could be in violation.
The ADA law is written completely in female gender. It’s totally her, she no where in the wording do they use the masculine or generic he or him.
It’s NEVER a good idea to let the government do anything other than national defense. And then only if we watch them VERY closely.
Yeah. They're doing a terrific job controlling our borders.
There. I fixed it.
Agreed. But we’re watching them and pushing them in the right direction.
From Tucson, Arizona where we see illegal alien trash on our property occasionally.
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