04.05.2012

Pizza painter

A photo in from southern California, La Jolla we think, shows poor use of low level access to paint the outside of a California Pizza Kitchen building.

The man - who looks as though he might be a chef – is using a folding scaffold tower base and a long handled roller, nothing at all wrong with that, however…
Please register to see all images

Definite Death Wish outside a pizza restaurant

The lightweight base has been simply ‘plonked’ down on the ground meaning that it is sloping and almost certainly that all four castors are not firmly on the ground.
Add to this the man has placed the platform on the top rung, clearly in order to gain maximum height. With his sloping and uncertain footing and the platform higher than it should be, plus the fact that he is pushing back and forth with his long pole and the chances that this whole thing will go over are exceptionally high.
Please register to see all images

A closer look

OK he is only 1.8 metres or so high - although his head is closer to four metres from the ground! Most fatal falls occur at two metres or less. If this base had overturned - and maybe it did? The painter/chef could have easily struck his head on the tree behind, or on the concrete sidewalk, worse still he may have bounced into the road, just as a truck was passing. Definite Death Wish.

PS: before you ask we have no idea if our reader went over and advised this man of the danger he was in… the photo came with no information – hopefully he did.