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A cable joiner, who suffered serious personal injury in an accident at work in 2009, could now claim compensation for his pain, suffering and loss of earnings.
The man from Bristol was employed by a high voltage engineering company in Yate, south Gloucestershire, and had been sent to work on a cable connection box. He had been told by the company that the box was earthed and isolated ready for him to work on, but this was not the case.
The cable connection box had not been made safe, and, subsequently, when the man started to work on the equipment, an electrical current of 11,000 volts jumped towards a spanner which the cable joiner was holding, and set his clothes alight. This caused the victim severe burns to his upper body, including his hands and arms.
The HSE investigated the incident and found that the wrong part of the cable connection box had been isolated, leaving the part which was being worked on by the employee, live and very dangerous.
An HSE inspector stated that the accident at work could have been avoided easily by conducting a risk assessment and checking, with testing apparatus suitable for the job, that the work area was correctly earthed.
As a result of the company's failure to protect the health and safety of the employee, it was fined £5000, and ordered to pay costs of £8,000.
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