Ladders 101

We've had our excitment for the week. I heard a gigantic thud this morning and came running out of my office wondering if a tree had fallen over. A couple of workers from the local cell phone company had come to fix our neighbor’s wireless internet connection. They had a long bamboo ladder set up on the relatively flat first story roof over the neighbor’s kitchen going up to the upper roof over the second floor. Apparently one guy started to come down off the upper roof when the ladder slid and he fell with the ladder. My house helper was washing clothes outside and heard the crash and him groaning so she ran and hollered to a nearby security guard to help. The guard came running along with the other cell phone worker and they got up on the roof real fast, hoisting themselves up (they had a lot more trouble getting back down). The guy was still laying there on top of the ladder but after a couple of minutes the other two helped him up. He sat there for awhile with his head in his hands bleeding from the nose. The neighbor and I told them to go see a doctor because he could have head injuries. Don’t know if they will go, but they had nearly finished anyway and soon departed. Nobody was holding the ladder at the bottom when the guy started coming down so I suppose it just slid on the corrugated cement roofing. It's a wonder the roof didn't break.

I guess that guy didn’t ever take Ladders 101. Or maybe whoever made that bamboo ladder forgot to paint on it that using it on hard slippery surfaces could be dangerous. I suspect that the guy probably won’t see a doctor unless he really develops scary symptoms because he would have to pay for it. The cell phone company may have insurance but he would be afraid that if he reported it to the company he just might lose his job for being so dumb. I hope he will be okay.