BUTTE — According to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, 3 people were killed in 2018 by falls while on the job.
That makes it the third leading cause of on-the-job deaths in Montana.
Montana Tech has an unusual classroom that’s training students to limit that statistic. Montana This Morning’s Chet Layman visited the OSHA Lab on the Montana Tech campus and talked with Theresa Stack and Roger Jensen who both teach in the lab.
The pair say the lab, equipped with different ladders and safety equipment, gives them the opportunity to train students in ways most other programs in the country can’t. Jensen says fall account for more than 750 on-the-job deaths every year, and as many as 140 of them are from ladders.
The work that happens in the lab helps students to go out in to the industrial workforce and train employees to avoid those potential dangers.
Stack says combining classroom work with hands-on safety instruction in the lab gives Montana Tech students a far greater education than those coming from programs without this kind of lab.
Chet Layman’s visit to the OSHA Lab was part of Montana This Morning’s regular visit to Montana Tech.
