Many companies do their escape and rescue training with sandbags or similar inanimate objects rather than real people. The argument for using sandbags instead of people is simple: Why put people at risk if you don’t have to?

Those with safety plans built exclusively on “assisted rescue” argue that “sandbag rescues” are all that is needed because you can always assume that the people you are rescuing are unresponsive, which means they act like sandbags.

The problem with this logic is that it assumes that “assisted rescue” is the only option. It’s not. In fact, in many cases, it is also not the best option.

Often, assisted rescues are slow and the “last man down” doesn’t have anyone to assist him. The best example to illustrate this is if a fire starts in the nacelle of a wind turbine. In case of fire, you have seconds, not minutes, to get out and down. In these circumstances, waiting for help to perform an “assisted rescue” can result in lost lives.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “our wind turbine technicians have the equipment to self-rescue in case of fire.” Yes, they do. Wind turbine technicians work in pairs. The rescue of the first person down can be done as an “assisted rescue.” What about the second person? The second person doesn't have anyone to assist him. Instead, he has to perform an “escape” all by himself. Unless you have actually done an “escape” in training, you will be slow to do it in an emergency. This delay can result in injury or death.

There is another problem with a safety plan built entirely around “assisted rescue.” Equipment designed purely for “assisted rescue” may not be appropriate for “escape.” The only safe way to perform an escape is to descend with your controlled descent device. That way, if a knot or kink in the rope gets sucked into the descent device, you have access to the device to fix the problem. Some descent devices used for rescue are designed to be attached in fixed position to an anchor so that you descend away from it during an escape. If a knot or kink in the rope gets sucked into the device during descent, you may be stuck. If fire reaches the rope you are hanging from before help can rig an alternate way to get you down, an unpleasant outcome is assured.

In your work, what is more likely? Is it a person falling who needs to be rescued where there is plenty of time to perform an “assisted rescue?” Or, is it a time-critical event like a fire that requires getting everyone out and down in a hurry? If time-critical emergencies are more likely in your work, training with people rather than sandbags will develop the skills necessary to get everyone out and down quickly enough to save lives.

What about the argument that training with sandbags avoids putting people at risk during training? At DEUS Rescue, we train with back-up belay using the DEUS 7300 back-up belay system. It works automatically, it does not require an operator to decide when to activate the system or to control descent, it is speed limited to protect from free-fall, and it uses beefy 12 mm rope. When the DEUS 7300 is used for back-up belay during training two things happen. First, no one gets hurt. Second, people learn the skills to keep themselves safe.

By reducing the risk of people getting hurt during training to virtually zero, training with people instead of sandbags increases safety.