NAVFAC Southwest partnered with Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) San Diego May 1 to provide a five day, 40 Hour Fall Protection Competent Person training course to meet Navy and OSHA requirements to train personnel working at heights and exposed to fall hazards.

"Falls consistently remain one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities," said David Frye, NAVFAC Southwest Safety High Risk program manager. "The Fall Protection for Competent Person training provides the training necessary to address any fall hazard situation, evaluate it and recommend solutions, and in addition provides them the knowledge to conduct end user hands-on training for those employees required to work at heights."

A total of 46 NAVFAC Southwest employees participated in the training. The training was conducted at the AGC training facility in San Diego. Employees participated in classroom and hands-on training. NAVFAC Southwest personnel from Public Works Departments (PWD's) Coronado, China Lake and Ventura County who attended this course were recommended by their supervisors as candidates to be considered for designation as a competent person for fall protection at their job sites.

"To bring awareness to all employees at NAVFAC Southwest, we designated May as our 'Preventing Slips, Trips and Falls Campaign,' coinciding with OSHA's National Fall Prevention Stand-down," said Frye. "In addition to this training, newsletters and other training material were distributed throughout the command in an effort to bring awareness in preventing falls."

Currently, 43 NAVFAC Southwest Public Works personnel have successfully completed the training this fiscal year.

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