The last twenty-four hours have seen two tower incidents resulting in at least three tower climber deaths, the subsequent death of a local firefighter, and two additional serious injuries.
The first fatal incident occurred last night in Bluetown, Texas, where a solo tower climber fell from a tower standing more than 1,000 fee tall. The unidentified man died from head trauma.
The climber was found by local deputies at about 6 p.m. local time last night. He was found some 30 feet away from the tower. This suggests the climber fell from a great height.
The second fatal incident was a tower failure today in Clarksburg, West Virginia. That failure took the lives of two tower workers. Later, during the rescue, a local firefighter was injured during a secondary tower collapse. That firefighter later died of his injuries.
Two tower workers on the ground in the Clarksburg tower failure were also injured.
A Nextel “COW” (l) and a Sprint “COLT” at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Click on the photo to enlarge.
CTIA – THE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION® petitioned the FCC on December 21, 2012 to relax its rules regarding temporary wireless site installations, typically using “COLTS” and “COWS” (“cells on light trucks”, and “cells on wheels”). The FCC has responded by opening a proceeding to seek public comment (RM-11688).
The FCC’s current process requires certain types of public notice, which the CTIA says can prevent the wireless industry from bringing in additional call handling capacity for special events.
CTIA seeks a waiver from the public notice requirements for “temporary towers that (i) will be in use for 60 days or less, (ii) require the filing of a Form 7460-1 with the FAA, (iii) do not require marking or lighting pursuant to FAA regulations, and (iv) will be less than 200 feet [sic]” which CTIA calls in its petition “Two Month Towers.”
When are Two Month Towers needed? In its petition, the CTIA gave some examples:
There are also numerous instances where carriers need to deploy temporary towers in non-emergency situations with less than 30 days of advance notice. These events often occur with only a few days of advance notice, with carriers learning about the need for additional capacity at the last moment. These events nevertheless place significant short-term demands on the local wireless networks and require temporary facilities to address these capacity issues. For example:
In 2011, President Obama vacationed in Martha’s Vineyard. Carriers did not receive sufficient advance notice of the vacation and had to quickly deploy temporary facilities to accommodate the increased capacity necessitated by the influx of press personnel and additional tourists;
States and localities often hold ticker-tape parades to celebrate their teams’ sports championships. Carriers do not have advance notice regarding teams that will win championships and the parades usually are held shortly after the championship game;
During presidential campaigns, candidates made stops in various towns and carriers receive less than 30 days notice due, in part, to security concerns. Once carriers learn of planned campaign stops, they mobilize to deploy temporary facilities. The lack of 30 days notice would preclude the deployment of these temporary facilities;
CTIA’s petition provided other examples of requests for temporary sites that had to be deployed could not meet the 30-day notice rule. The petition did not say how those sites were deployed without complying with the FCC’s present 30-day notice requirement, but I digress.
If you’d like to read the CTIA’s petition, CLICK HERE. To read the FCC’s request for comments on CTIA’s petition, CLICK HERE. Comments are due on February 25, 2013, with reply comments due on March 12, 2013. To search for filed comments, CLICK HERE.
As a reminder, PBS Frontline in conjunction with ProPublica will present “Cell Tower Deaths” premiering TODAY/TONIGHT on PBS stations. The PBS Frontline page is here: (CLICK HERE).
No, this story is NOT about radio frequency emissions concerns. Rather, it focuses on the risk of building and servicing cell towers.
According to PBS:
The smartphone revolution comes with a hidden cost. A joint investigation by FRONTLINE and ProPublica explores the hazardous work of independent contractors who are building and servicing America’s expanding cellular infrastructure. While some tower climbers say they are under pressure to cut corners, layers of subcontracting make it difficult for safety inspectors to determine fault when a tower worker is killed or injured.
Why are tower workers 10-times more likely to die than construction workers (as claimed by PBS)?
Take a look at the clip. About 36 second in to the Dirty Jobs clip you’ll see the owner of a tower construction company attach his safety belt hook to a tower section not yet bolted to the rest of the tower.
In my opinion, what you see at that moment is an amazing deadly lack of judgment, especially for the owner of a tower construction company. Even if he’s double tied-off to the tower, were the free-floating tower section were to fly off or drop, he would be split in two (metaphorically, if not in reality). I wonder if his poor judgment is a model for his employees? I certainly hope not. I’ll bet his Workers Comp insurance carrier hopes not, as well.
PBS Frontline in conjunction with ProPublica will present “Cell Tower Deaths” premiering on May 22, 2012 on PBS stations. No, this story is NOT about radio frequency emissions concerns. Rather, it focuses on the risk of building and servicing cell towers. Those risks are significant.
According to PBS:
The smartphone revolution comes with a hidden cost. A joint investigation by FRONTLINE and ProPublica explores the hazardous work of independent contractors who are building and servicing America’s expanding cellular infrastructure. While some tower climbers say they are under pressure to cut corners, layers of subcontracting make it difficult for safety inspectors to determine fault when a tower worker is killed or injured.
Why are tower workers 10-times more likely to die than regular construction workers (as claimed by PBS)?
Take a look at the clip. About 36 second in to the Dirty Jobs clip you’ll see the owner of a tower construction company attach his safety belt hook to a tower section not yet bolted to the rest of the tower.
In my opinion, what you see at that moment is an amazing deadly lack of judgment, especially for the owner of a tower construction company. Even if he’s double tied-off to the tower, were the free-floating tower section were to fly off or drop, he would be split in two (metaphorically, if not in reality). I wonder if his poor judgment is a model for his employees? I certainly hope not. I’ll bet his Workers Comp insurance carrier hopes not, as well.
Apparently, tower building is a Dirty Job, according to Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs.” I happen to love the show, and I love towers, so what’s not to love about this?
The February 7th show has Mike joining the Great Plains Towers crew as they build a new stick. No doubt this will be an interesting segment.
Here’s a question for you: Why are the tower bolts inserted upwards through the holes, with the nuts and washers on the top? There is a VERY good reason for this, and you are taught the reason on the very first tower you assemble, or come to inspect.
Here’s another question from the clip, above: Why did Kevin Reski, the owner of Great Plains Towers attach one of his safety belt hooks to a tower segment that had not yet secured by any bolts? I really doubt there’s a very good reason for this.
Jonathan
PS: The tallest stick I’ve built was 251 feet AGL back in 1982. It was for Storer Cable in Mission Viejo, California. That was tall enough for me, thank you very much.
PPS: Mike is well known for Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and the Deadest Catch, and for the hysterical YouTube clips of Mike on QVC in the early 90’s (don’t drink while watching these unless you want to mop the floor after). His personal web site is a fun pun: http://www.mikeroweworks.com.
