How AI Enhances Fall Prevention Safety in Workplaces
- Gary Ng
- Aug 4, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 26
Work at elevated levels is a common in various industries, and it remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Fall prevention safety refers to ensuring that workers are protected from risks when working at any place where a fall could cause severe injuries or even death. Traditionally described as “falls from height”, these incidents are especially common in industries like construction, and oil & gas.
A fall can be defined as an injury that is caused when a person lands on the ground after falling from a higher place, like a ladder, scaffold, building, roof, or other elevated place or work area. Such falls may cause serious injuries such as fractures, bone breakage and even death. Even though a person does not fall from a big height, they might yet be seriously injured or killed.
A fall from a minimum of two meters is enough to cause injuries to the person. However, OSHA requires that fall protection should be provided at elevations of 4 feet in general industry workplaces, 5 feet in shipyards, 6 feet in the construction industry and 8 feet in long shoring operations. This makes fall prevention safety a non-negotiable requirement across worksites.
Why Fall Prevention Safety is Critical in Workplaces
According to OSHA’s preliminary list of the top 10 most commonly cited workplace safety violations for the fiscal year 2018, "fall protection" topped the list with 7,270 complaints. In fact, after traffic accidents, falls are the second most prevalent cause of injury-related death. They make up a large proportion of blunt trauma cases and ED admissions.
Statistics say, in Singapore falls from height have been the prime cause of workplace death, with 11 out of 29 workplace deaths (till date) in 2022 being due to falls. Similarly, in the year 2016, the highest number of work injuries witnessed in Saudi Arabia was due to falls from elevated positions. These numbers underline why fall prevention safety must be prioritized.
Common Hazards That Threaten Fall Prevention Safety
The most common causes undermining fall prevention safety include:
PPE Non-Compliance: Since OSHA took the initiative, companies have been providing PPE to every worker. But only providing workers with PPE is not enough, one needs to ensure that the right PPE is used for the right work and is properly worn.
Improper use of Safety Ropes: Safety ropes are essential to prevent the workers from falling. Improper use of safety ropes may lead to accidents.
Unstable Equipment: Use of unstable access equipment, such as scaffolding, towers, platforms (Gondola), and ladders put the workers at the risk of losing their balance, leading to fall or dropping of materials.
Falling from Forklift: Forklifts are essential in work sites. Falling from elevated pallets or platforms lead to deadly accidents.
Unprotected Edges: If the edges are unprotected, and/or there is a gap between platforms and improper equipment transportation, the workers can get injured from such fall-related hazards.
Ergonomic Hazards: Sometimes, workers stand at the platform's edge, extending their upper body from the platform. These ergonomic hazards lead to serious accidents in the workplace.
Natural Hazards: Sometimes accidents happen due to environmental causes as well. Workers can slip and fall in rain or slippery floors (commonly in oil & gas industry). Strong winds and excessive heat can also injure the workers.
Health Issues: Health issues are often ignored, but they can also indirectly lead to workplace falls. For example, workers experiencing fatigue or drowsiness are more prone to accidents.
All of these risks highlight how fragile fall prevention safety can be if not consistently managed.
Challenges in Preventing Fall Accidents and the Role of Fall Prevention Technology
Preventing accidents is no simple task. Even though the importance of fall prevention safety is well recognized, worksites face significant challenges:
24/7 Monitoring Limitations: Round-the-clock monitoring of each worker is not possible by human means. Even while using CCTV for remote inspection of construction jobsites or any other jobsite, it is difficult to alert the workers on-time to prevent the accident from taking place.
Lack of Training & Awareness: Most of the workers are not trained. They are not well aware of the risks, resulting in unsafe worker behaviour. A study has shown that fall related accidents in Saudi Arabia is mainly due to lack of awareness.
Worker Fatigue: Long and continuous hours of work and physical strain reduce productivity and increase the chances of accidents.
Limitations of Traditional Detection Tools: Conventional fall detection technologies often only recognize hard falls, while they are not accurate enough for near miss detection (like a worker tripping but managing to regain his balance).
This is where fall prevention technology comes into play. Advanced solutions like AI-driven video analytics can overcome these gaps by ensuring real-time monitoring, proactive alerts, and continuous safety oversight.
How viAct Video Based AI Powers Fall Prevention Safety
Fall hazards might sound to be small but when they occur, they can cause grave fatalities in the workplace. Fall prevention safety requires more than just compliance checklists, it needs active, intelligent monitoring. That is why, it is crucial for the fast-growing industries to have some fall prevention plan (FPP) in hand so as to reduce fatalities and ensure holistic safety in jobsites. This is where viAct AI-powered fall prevention technology for elevated work safety can play a crucial role.
Here are five ways viAct uses scenario-based AI to help manage fall-related incidents at worksites.
Most of the solutions available to monitor the job sites have limited functionalities, as they are mostly based on hard fall detection. However, viAct has leveraged the power of computer vision to detect even the minutest of near miss (i.e. worker tripped and almost fell but managed to regain his balance), preventing small incidents from becoming serious.
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Using AI video analytics for gondola monitoring the stakeholders can effectively monitor the safe use and operation of Suspended Working Platform/Gondola and/or Forklifts. The intelligent and autonomous workplace safety solution can easily detect any safety non-compliance while working on platforms, say improper PPE, workers’ smoking behavior, workers’ risky acts like climbing on the fencing of the platform and the like. Moreover, using viTAG, it can also detect the tilting motion of platforms, thus ensuring their safer use and operation.
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Life Safety ropes and other PPEs like safety helmet, jackets etc. are crucial during elevated works. The AI Monitoring Solution detects whether or not the workers at height are (properly) hooked to life saving ropes, and have worn (proper) PPE or not. In case any worker without life safety rope hooked or (proper) PPE is detected, instant and real-time alerts are sent out to both the on-site and remote stakeholders, thus enabling them to take the necessary action to avoid any mishap.
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Improper means of climbing can be a source of great threat to the lives of the workers. The Workplace Safety Solution uses the power of vision intelligence to detect any instance of workers using improper means to reach heights such as forklifts or excavators and immediately alerts the stakeholders so as to avoid accidents before it is too late. These insights can be viewed anytime later in the dashboard and can be used for trend analysis and workers’ training.
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Barricading is essential in high-rise works to outline or block a dangerous area and warn of a boundary that should not be crossed to ensure safety of workers. The AI cameras can efficiently detect and alert missing barricades in the high-rise works so that stakeholders can take insightful actions and prevent any fall instance related to missing barricades.
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Thus, using video analytics for workplace safety, viAct ensures:
Building Safer Worksites Through AI-powered Fall Prevention Technology
As industries grow rapidly, workplace safety needs smarter, faster, and more reliable solutions. By combining fall prevention safety practices with AI-powered fall prevention technology, companies can not only meet compliance standards but also save lives – a transformation already reshaping how fall protection at heights is approached in construction.
AI-driven monitoring ensures hazards are detected in real-time, workers are protected, and supervisors are empowered with insights to prevent accidents before they happen. The future of safety lies in prevention, not reaction. By embracing fall prevention safety supported by AI-powered fall prevention technology, businesses can build a safer, more resilient future for their workforce.
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