A telehandler driver received a severe electric shock from hidden live underground cabling that his employers knew about, Beverley magistrates heard on 8 July.
The incident happened at a construction site at North Ferriby, east Yorkshire, where two new detached houses were being built. During the demolition in March 2006 by east Yorkshire firm Hogarth (Construction), a live, three-phase, 400-volt cable was struck, and a termination box put on it by the local electricity company. The box was subsequently buried.
By September 2006, the construction of the two houses was well underway. One of employee Mark Dougherty’s duties at the end of each shift had been to tidy the site and clear the muddy roadways of general debris. On 7 September, he had gone to the top of the site to clear an area of bricks and mortar on the ground near where the termination box had been buried. Because it was on a busy site road, it had been considerably churned up, and the box was exposed. Thinking it was a piece of plastic, Mr Dougherty went to pick it up and received the 400-volt electric shock (picture shows the damaged termination box).
HSE inspector David Stewart told SHP that the company was prosecuted because it had not made any attempt to identify if there were underground cables on the site before the new job started. He added: “They should, at the very least, have got hold of the plans of the site — showing where underground cables were located — from Yorkshire Electricity, and marked the site of the cables with wooden pegs, so they could be avoided. It was bad planning.”
Hogarth pleaded guilty to breaching reg.3(1) of the Management Regulations 1999 by failing to make an adequate assessment of the risks posed to workers from live underground cables, and under reg.14 of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, for its failure to take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of persons working in proximity to live underground cables. It was fined £2000 for each breach and told to pay £1616 in full costs.
In mitigation, the company said it had not been trying to cut corners, or save money. The incident had been an oversight, for which it had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
The Safety Conversation with SHP (previously the Safety and Health Podcast) aims to bring you the latest news, insights and legislation updates in the form of interviews, discussions and panel debates from leading figures within the profession.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, subscribe and join the conversation today!
