Ladders are notoriously dangerous--specially to the inexperienced person who might clean out a gutter once a year or attempt small repairs on the house. The BEAR team has analyzed more than a dozen ladder cases and, based on the laws of physics, all but one was caused by excessive reach by the user.

Our tests include friction, slippage and x-rays. We applied all these methods when examining a mysterious case of a ladder coming loose from a recreational vehicleWe successfully determined that during a previous re-roofing of the RV, important components that hold the ladder securely to the vehicle were not reinstalled. This mistake caused the ladder to ultimately rip out of its fixtures.