Herzog Roofing is a family-run company that prioritizes safety, treating workers like family. In an industry that works at-heights, the importance of equipment inspections and proper usage cannot be overstated.

I've been with Herzog's for 37 years. Family run business and they treat you sort of like part of their family. I can't see myself working any place else. I mean, the employees are the most important thing to me. And make sure they come home safe. 

That's 56,000 people that are injured by a dropped object. And 4.7% of that leads to fatalities. Now all of those instances are what? Preventable. Becky Danielson, Product Manager for Dropped Objects at Ergodyne.

We are actually spending time with the people that actually use all the equipment out in the field so that we can get accurate feedback in order to build better products and find solutions for issues they might actually have.

For myself, if I'm working in the lift, and it's a retractable lift, retractable harness. Obviously, you got to have that. It's got to be clean. It's got to be like, you know, can’t have any rips in there and that type of stuff. But you definitely got to have it. I mean, it's too many close calls. You know, just that one mistake and that's it.

Two of the biggest key things within any industry, anywhere, is making sure that people inspect their equipment and making sure that they're using it in a manner that it was designed to be used.

In the old days, there was no safety. There was no gates and there wasn't, you know, there was some safety, but I mean, it wasn't as required as it is today.

When I first started roofing, I started roofing in like ‘91 and it was like just put flags up. Didn't make any difference on slopes or any of that type of stuff. I myself have fallen off roofs in the past, like prior to working here, and like broken ribs, hands, feet, you know, and all that type of stuff. And the whole thing is like making sure that people comprehend, like it's serious business if you don't tie up a panel or something like that and it blows off the roof and you can kill people, and that's real life.

The bottom line is, is I would really, you know, and when you show up for work on Monday morning, you go home Monday night.

Keep driving, keep moving forward. Keep trying to figure out what's the best thing that we can do to keep people safe.