Before and After the FalL illustrations by steve nelson by Steve nelson Here's a picture of fall protection success: A rigger in an OSHA-approved harness hanging in space above the arena floor. The well-engineered fall protection system performed as intended. Maybe. Why only maybe? Because the harness that can stop a fall in a split second can kill a suspended worker in less than thirty minutes if he isn't extracted and offered appropriate first aid. And if the worker was injured either before or during the fall arrest, the rescue window is even shorter. So the real question becomes, what happen after the fall? Is a trained venue rescue team immediately swinging into action just outside the frame so they can get their co-worker extracted quickly and into the hands of the EMS squad? Or is there confusion and a rescue too late? Here's a picture of fall protection failure: A rigger in an OSHA-approved harness on the arena floor getting CPR after falling fifty feet from the high steel. A well-engineered fall protection system did not perform as intended. Could the fatal fall be due to something as minor as a connector improperly attached due to the rigger not being properly trained in using the venue's fall protection system? Could it be that a primary contributing cause of the accident was not hardware failure, but a training failure? Hardware failure or operator error? Or perhaps a perfect storm of contributing factors, apparent and hidden, that all contributed to that fatal unprotected misstep. Twelve years ago, Steve Nelson and Rocky Paulson wrote "Fall Protection for Arena Rigging" (TD&T, Fall 1996). Now, ETCP certified rigger Steve Nelson returns to the same topic with some non-technical reflections on how far we've come and suggests a path for improved safety in the future. F A L L 2008 theatre design & technology 25