The 2015 death of a 20 year old Oshkosh man who fell five stories from a senior-living facility prompted a federal investigation that resulted in multiple citations for a local window cleaning service. Read More
This is terrible for those involved, at the end of the day the without having some kind of rope access regulations, stuff like this will keep happening.
Learning rope access training from a window cleaning company is the VERY WORST THING YOU COULD EVER DO, unless they have within their employ an independent lvl 3 instructor, which none will.
When I learned rope access it was a 3 day course 2 days of theory and a day of practical, How many people who get trained on the job by a window cleaning company actually learn the theory to what your doing without it you taking massive risks with your lives and other people lives.
I have worked with about 50 high rise window cleaners, every single one of those had also done a similar course, I did mine back in 2000, since then the laws are tighter and my qualification is still legal but those new guys now have to be IRATA certified which is a 5 day course very in depth and with more areas covered such as aid climbing and basic rigging.
Without expert training accidents will continue to happen, expert training cannot come from the job training or from your boss, Iām sure you will learn the window cleaning side just fine, but leave it to someone who is job it is to make sure you are safe and learn all the knowledge you will need to have.
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