Maxingout
25th October 2008, 11:30 PM
When I was 47 years old, I rolled my van while driving in New Zealand. I was wearing my safety belt and shoulder harness.
The safety belt and shoulder harness worked well. They prevented me from being thrown out of the vehicle, which is what they are designed to do. Good for them.
Unfortunately, the safety belt broke my left femur close to the hip, and my shoulder harness fractured five ribs in my right upper chest. One of the broken ribs punctured my right lung causing a collapsed lung and bleeding in the chest.
These serious injuries were caused by the safety gear that restrainted my 47 year old bones. The point of this story is that the same safety gear that saves you from serious injuries, also can cause major injuries of their own.
Most people making offshore passages these days in their own yachts are over fifty years old, and like it or not, their bones are more brittle than they used to be. Those bones need all the help they can get in an emergency situation, and if you fall overboard wearing a poorly designed safety harness, you have a good chance of breaking some ribs and puncturing a lung when the slack comes out of your tether, and instantly the safety harness tests the bone density in your ribs.
Our chest harnesses on Exit Only are of the parachute variety with net like webbing distributing the forces over the entire chest in the event of falling overboard. Rather than the straps of the harness focusing all the stress in a few places, the harness distributes the stress over a broad area. I don't know if they manufacture our exact harness any longer, but they were made by Switlick. There are similar to the aviation life vests found at this URL:
http://www.switlik.com/
83
When you go to that URL, click on Aviation Life Vests, and you will see what I am talking about. The ones we have on Exit Only would be similar to the Helicopter crew vest, Special Operations vest, or the Constant wear vest.
The point is this. Don't just go to a marine store and say, "Give me a couple of safety harness." Instead, check out everything that's available and then try them on. Adjust them and see how they fit. See how they distribute the force over your chest. It just might save you from having some broken ribs and a punctured lung to complicate you life if you ever fall overboard at sea.
Have you tried on several different types of safety harnesses? What type of harness distributes the stresses best for you?
The safety belt and shoulder harness worked well. They prevented me from being thrown out of the vehicle, which is what they are designed to do. Good for them.
Unfortunately, the safety belt broke my left femur close to the hip, and my shoulder harness fractured five ribs in my right upper chest. One of the broken ribs punctured my right lung causing a collapsed lung and bleeding in the chest.
These serious injuries were caused by the safety gear that restrainted my 47 year old bones. The point of this story is that the same safety gear that saves you from serious injuries, also can cause major injuries of their own.
Most people making offshore passages these days in their own yachts are over fifty years old, and like it or not, their bones are more brittle than they used to be. Those bones need all the help they can get in an emergency situation, and if you fall overboard wearing a poorly designed safety harness, you have a good chance of breaking some ribs and puncturing a lung when the slack comes out of your tether, and instantly the safety harness tests the bone density in your ribs.
Our chest harnesses on Exit Only are of the parachute variety with net like webbing distributing the forces over the entire chest in the event of falling overboard. Rather than the straps of the harness focusing all the stress in a few places, the harness distributes the stress over a broad area. I don't know if they manufacture our exact harness any longer, but they were made by Switlick. There are similar to the aviation life vests found at this URL:
http://www.switlik.com/
83
When you go to that URL, click on Aviation Life Vests, and you will see what I am talking about. The ones we have on Exit Only would be similar to the Helicopter crew vest, Special Operations vest, or the Constant wear vest.
The point is this. Don't just go to a marine store and say, "Give me a couple of safety harness." Instead, check out everything that's available and then try them on. Adjust them and see how they fit. See how they distribute the force over your chest. It just might save you from having some broken ribs and a punctured lung to complicate you life if you ever fall overboard at sea.
Have you tried on several different types of safety harnesses? What type of harness distributes the stresses best for you?