Ladder safety - a warning

Dreamscometrue

Hi,
I do quite a bit of DIY myself and go into the loft from time to time without any issues. I weigh around 9 stone. I had an engineer here on Friday who came to replace a burnt out diverter valve. He couldn't be bothered to get his ladders and thinking nothing of it I lent him mine. I went into the loft first to move a few things and then he went to turn off the water in the loft. Moments later he'd just stepped on the top rung of the ladder and the ladders came apart with the huge man crashing to the ground. There was blood everywhere. He'd split his head open and I had to call for an ambulance. I later discovered that he had 7 stitches. I never want to see something like that again. Please make sure that the ladders can hold your weight before use. This guy was average height with a bit of a belly.

custardy

Installed a full wooden loft ladder conversion.
Thanks for your concern though.

z1a

Is he suing you?

TheCyclingProgrammer

You might want to check any public liability cover on your home insurance. Just in case.

Dreamscometrue

custardy wrote: »

Installed a full wooden loft ladder conversion.
Thanks for your concern though.

You'd be concerned too if you saw a man drop to the ground splitting his head open!

Norman_Castle

How did the ladders "come apart"? Was this due to the plumbers weight or a failure of the ladders?
Are they combination ladders which hadn't been set properly?

Dreamscometrue

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

You might want to check any public liability cover on your home insurance. Just in case.

I've just checked, I am covered. I never thought before about ladders holding different weights of people. People are getting bigger. I wrongly assumed that all ladders would be built to hold a heavy weight up to 20 stones or so.

Dreamscometrue

Norman_Castle wrote: »

How did the ladders "come apart"? Was this due to the plumbers weight or a failure of the ladders?
Are they combination ladders which hadn't been set properly?

He set the ladders and I went into the loft first to move some things out of the way. I've used these ladders for about 15 years and give them a regular inspection. I think it was his weight. It was frightening to see it happen.

PasturesNew

Although he might sue .... he should be sufficiently well-versed in ladder usage and the limits of his own weight to have stopped and thought "Ah, this looks a bit dodgy .... I'm a lardy, I need to go a bit easy and see how it goes"

As a manual worker he'll have used far more ladders in his day/week/life than your average person.

stator

Everyone knows not to step on the top rungs of a ladder.
Entirely his fault.

Norman_Castle

Dreamscometrue wrote: »

He set the ladders and I went into the loft first to move some things out of the way. I've used these ladders for about 15 years and give them a regular inspection. I think it was his weight. It was frightening to see it happen.

So did they break or were they not set properly?