Is Security Installation Hazardous Work?

Workman’s Compensation insurance tends to group us with electricians depending on the state licensing.

I’ve drilled through a gas pipe and electrical.  Not fun, potentially dangerous. 

I’ve had multiple squad cars arrive at a residence while I was on the roof, guns aimed. That too was scary and unavoidable since the neighbors called. 

Slips trips and falls is a big one, and from personal experience, hearing loss. Security work is all I've done since I graduated high school, and when I think back I've been exposed to a lot of high DB sounds with no protection. Sirens going off in my ear, smoke detectors ringing, loud mechanical rooms, elevator rooms, compressor rooms.

Aside from that, fallen off a ladder a few times, nothing serious. Put my foot through a drywall ceiling. I've accidentally dropped a lot of stuff (tools, screws, parts), hit some one once.

Most of the issues with ladders has been my own fault. Feeling a little lazy, or just wanting to get the job done so instead of getting a properly sized ladder you step up to that top step. The dropping things, that's another personal issue, I've got better pants with more pockets and just try to carry less with me up the ladder.

The hearing problem, I've gotten better about using hearing protection, but I can honestly say I wasn't really properly warned about the dangers. That's not to say I completely blame my employers, I am/was a grown man I should have known better, but the people I worked with didn't really wearing hearing protection, and I was never told just how harmful a siren can be to your ears, or how loud compressor/mechanical rooms can be.

I would generally say yes. Compared to an oil rig worker? No. Compared to Security Sales Engineer? Yes.

Slips and falls for sure, as you generally will spend a lot of your time up and down ladders. I personally pinched a nerve/fractured my ankle after a solid week up and down ladders installing 20 or so cameras per day (12-16 hour days). I blacked out from the pain, woke up on a tile floor in the lobby of a middle school... luckily our sales guy just happened to be there that day and was able to drive me home. I also almost shot myself off of a ladder that was suspended from the wrong end of a landline telephone feed when I was about to cut the p-clamp off of the messenger wire of the main trunk. By almost I mean I did cut the p-clamp, but I had strapped the ladder and myself to the messenger wire so I didn't go flying, I just bounced back and forth for about 30 seconds.

Also, you can end up spending a ton of time on the road, most times in a large van or truck and if you're a junior tech, a vehicle with a dubious health and safety history. I'd be curious what the vehicle accident rate is for the average service tech (higher or lower than averages per time getting in a vehicle).

Knock on wood and thank goodness -we have had only 2 lost time accidents in the last 10 years. Both were the same guy. Both involved improper use of tools. We work primarily in the industrial sector. The amount of safety training we do is significant. Some of our major customers use ISNetworld to track compliance with their safety standards and documentation requirements. If we don't maintain an A grade, we cannot work on their sites. Each week begins with a safety meeting.

There was one customer whose site specific training described 5 ways in which someone could die at their site. That plant went under during the recession and has only partially reopened. It is less hazardous today.   

The main thing is to preach and teach safe working habits. If you focus on working safely, a site security field tech job is no more dangerous other trades. 

Today safety is taken much more seriously than back in the 70s when I was a young (and naive) tech.  Back then, fall protection consisted of not standing on the top step of a ladder, unless it was too inconvenient to get the proper ladder.  One of the most dangerous things I did on a fairly regular basis was to climb and walk on the steel trusses high above the factory floor to service high voltage smoke detectors -  yes back then some smoke detectors ran on 250VDC. My most memorable was an electrical distribution room at a steel mill. There I had to walk the steel above the bare high voltage buss. The worst thing was I was working alone in an unmanned building.  After one too many harrowing walks, I worked up the courage to ask the boss to send along a helper - to call for help if I got hurt (or notify next of kin)! 

Depends on what you're doing.

I've been shocked (120VAC) enough times that my nickname around one workplace was Sparky.

Took a sideways tumble off a customer's table that I was (stupidly) using as a makeshift ladder cause I was too lazy to get mine out of the van. Luckily a bruise was all I got out of it.

Had a strong gust of wind blow my extension ladder off the distribution when I was halfway up and untethered. I held on expecting the strand hooks to catch, then the whole ladder turned 90 degrees as it slid off the smooth cable and the weight distribution changed. I jumped off and landed hard but was otherwise ok, very lucky. The ladder hit the ground with enough force that it bent the strand hooks at least an additional inch or two inwards, and after I got the ladder back on the van I couldn't bend them back into shape hanging off of them with my lineman's pliers. This could have been avoided in training because we were originally (wrongly) taught to keep the top of the ladder extended 2-4 feet past the distribution. After that I made it a point to put the strand hooks right on the distribution.

Had my corded roto-hammer catch a nice big rock in someone's foundation once, jamming the bit but the body of the drill kept turning. Wrenched my arm pretty good. Those things have a LOT of torque.

Had a coworker cut off a piece of messenger on a drop cable while my face was next to it and got it right in the eye. That was unpleasant. Worse than that I was hanging a fiber drop and trying to get it to clear a tree, and backed into a large bush that I didn't immediately feel (heavy jacket, winter time). Somehow I'd bent a fairly strong branch with my arm or body and it suddenly let go and whipped me square in my right eyeball. That required an ER trip and several weeks of healing but otherwise no permanent injury.

Been in several customers' homes where I needed to put on disposable boot covers and respirators due to black mold in the basement. Those were always very unpleasant. The upside was they tended not to care if the quality of the install was quick and dirty.

I somehow managed to snip my palm with my trusty Klein sidecutters while cutting a piece of RG6 once.

And also had several near-misses with @ssholes while I was doing aerial work and the cones, amber flashing lights, and vehicle obstructing the roadway wasn't enough of an indicator the road was closed. I always tried to keep a lane open if practical but sometimes I'd need to cross the road with a drop, and idiots would still try to penetrate my worksite. More than once some hardware or tools "accidentally" fell onto impatient vehicles. Oops.

I had a helper raise a garage door one time, only problem was the customer had a grip on the rail (for unknown reasons) and it sheared off three fingers (very clean slice), ran him up to the hospital and they reattached them. Two months later same guy, told him dont drive the truck into the warehouse until the door is fully opened, of course he drives in early and demolishes a new door. Had to let him go for that one. I heard a couple months later he got a landscaping gig and ran ran thru some woman's prize rose garden with a zero turn mower, glad he's gone!!

Had a helper one time come out of the attic and sit a hot ass trouble light down on a mattress then proceeded to go downstairs for lunch, we smelt smoke, when up to look and it burned a hole thorough the mattress, sheets everything was burnt. Jack ass tried to convince me that we could flip it over and change sheets the customer would not know (house full of smoke) yea right....Found out later when I finished laughing my ass off that the home was owned by the company's insurance agent....was a real fiasco.....not the same one that clipped the fingers....