"Spotting" someone on a ladder

Many overhead powerline workers in 1952, in Nagoya...

If you look at the Nagoya photo of the linemen more closely you will see "spotters" one at the base of each ladder. The Spotters job is to "Catch" the lineman if he shocks or falls for any reason to grab and arm or whatever of the lineman so he doesn't land on his head or back and die. So, if you saw someone falling you would grab their head or shoulder or arm so they at least land feet first. They might break a leg but would likely survive the fall if they weren't electrocuted too bad. So, being a spotter is just as an important job as the lineman himself because it is a life or death job around electricity.

Here in the U.S. we "belt in" and wear safety belts and go up more now in "cherry pickers" which are hydraulic buckets built into trucks to have more safety involved in being a lineman up in the lines. So, you don't see "Spotters" as much as before but often if you look closely they are still there. There is often someone on the ground to bring the bucket from the cherry picker hydraulics down if the lineman is unconscious but still belted into the bucket.