The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has estimated that 33 percent of construction trade fatalities are due to falls from heights and 6 percent of these falls originated from a ladder. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's 1994 study, more than 90,000 people in the United States received emergency room treatment for ladder-related injuries and 300 died. Underwriters Laboratories estimates that over 222,000 portable ladder accidents requiring professional medical treatment are reported every year in the United States.
The cranes being driven out of the assembly plants at Grove, Manitowoc, Link Belt, Krupp and Liebherr, are not your grandfather's or even your father's models.
I was raised on the construction adage: “More guys fall off of shallow pitches than steep ones,” and it has certainly proven true in my 35 years of construction history.