PPE: FALL ARREST

As the name suggests, fall arrest systems catch a worker AFTER they have started to fall, and slow them down in a safe manner. They are usually unloaded before being ‘used’, and often have some slack. As a result they must expect the user to have accelerated during the fall, and so they must dissipate their kinetic energy gradually to avoid injuring the user through high G-forces. They must also be strong enough to cope with these high forces, often many times more than the weight of the user. As such, fall arrest systems are highly controlled and must be planned and used with great care.