Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Commentary: This is only my opinion.
Recently a young man died by climbing a tower for the fun of it. I hate that people think they are there for their amusement. It’s bad enough that many people getting paid to climb communications towers are poorly trained. Now you have people that think its fun to go up with no gear and act stupid. My hope here is that the police actively prosecute all of these people to the fullest extent of the law. Not because it is trespassing or simply wrong. To show these people that it is against the law and that they could die.
Fences help, they are the first deterrent. I also know on some towers they had the ladders covered with plates and locked to keep people off. Some towers had barbed wire around the legs to keep people off. I think the best thing is to have cameras at every site. Although the owners rarely have anything at the site other that the hardware, so it would be up to a tenant to install the camera and put it in the tower. Say like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile. I wish they all would do it just to keep the tower safe. I know they all alarm their cabinets or shelters, but there is not alarm on the tower and I really don’t know how you would do that.
Click Here to Understand the Scope of Work
So the young man I spoke of, (information here), was a thrill seeker and climbed for fun. Why climb? Apparently it was fun, but now he is dead. It is truly a shame that his family has to live with this horrible 
thing. This kid could have gotten trained to do this as a career and gotten paid for it! Why didn’t he look into that so he could have made money doing something he loved? We may never know why, and now his parents have to bury their son. What a sad story when this kid thought he could defy gravity with any safety equipment.
We see it all the time, these pictures of people doing this. I get that they think it is fun, and it probably is until they get caught or they die.
Click Here to order Your Logbook
So do the right thing. If you see someone at a site that should not be there or not following the proper safety rules, like 100% tie off, let the tower owner know immediately. Tell them about it. Do the right thing so that they get the boot and you aren’t an accomplice. So many people just pass on by and say that it’s not their problem. How would you feel if you did nothing and then they wound up dead? I would feel horrible, but, I know many of you probably would say they got what they deserved. Well, what if you were considered an accomplice because you let it happen? What if you got a fine for letting it happen? Then you might care.
Subscribe today on iTunes or Stitcher
So pay attention to towers and who is on them. Let’s hope that the wireless field workers can act as a community to make the tower sites as safe as they can be by having qualified people on them. Keep the tower owners in the loop and alert them of this crap when it happens. Be aware and help each other out.
