Company Fined After Employee Gets Electric Shock from Overhead Cables
On 3rd September 2008, a worker was left severely burnt after he received a shock when his vehicle came in contact with 33,000 volts of overhead electrical lines at a waste site in Staffordshire.
Andrew Perry was making a visit to the site and was using a control lever to spill waste matter with the help of the extending arm of his truck when it caught the overhead cables. The electricity from the wires flowed through the vehicle and into his body, throwing him out of his truck. As a result of the shock, he received severe burns to his feet and arms.
John Rowland Fallows, the proprietor of Fallows Recycling Services, was found to be in violation of Regulation 14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and was fined by Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates Court with a sum of £1,600. He was also directed to pay £2,214 towards costs.
Unintentional contact with overhead electrical lines causes approximately 60% of electricity-related accidents at work, said Lynne Boulton, an HSE inspector. However, Perry turned out to be one of the lucky ones and survived the accident. Boulton also said that contact between machinery and equipment is not required for electricity to travel, as it can skip the openings in space and easily reach the nearest machine.
She also pointed out that the site in this case was not properly cordoned off for drivers and so the accident was inevitable, and added that putting up a blockade is not a big task to accomplish. Mr Fallows proved this when some time after the accident he put up barriers to prevent recurrence of similar happening at the site.
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