I have two true stories that do nothing but back-up my own views on the H&S culture that a lot of us find so tedious.
The first: We had landed a helicopter on a wide expanse of grass between two taxiways, as ordered by ATC, at a HUGE former RNAS airfield which is now a civil airport.
The following morning, very early, the two of us walked out to the helicopter and started preps to depart, aiming to leave as soon as the airport opened. Nothing was moving, just us.
Just as we were finishing taking the covers off, a Police car drove along the taxiway, stopped opposite us and the driver asked us if we “had any hi-viz jackets with us, and to put them on”. He’d seen us from the other side of the airfield, about half a mile away – and was driving the only thing that could have hit us.
The second: For a film, we were to land – at night - a pair of Bell Hueys on the roof of an Eastern Bloc airfield control tower. A fairly long but narrow, two story building with the ‘tower’ bit sticking up in the middle. Not too bad.
BUT, the H&S bloke insisted that to prevent people falling off the roof, a handrail be fitted around the edges! We argued against it, obviously – eventually we agreed on a 1ft high ‘triprail’ about 3ft in from the edge. We probably wouldn’t trip over that with the skids or hit it with the tail.
Unfortunately, the H&S bloke was right about someone falling off the roof, someone did – it was the poor b@$t@rd fitting the rail, he stepped back to admire his work. (He landed in a bush and was OK).