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Electrocution. Accidental Death Verdict.

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Man dies whilst retrieving a football and is shocked.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/02/accidental-death-verdict-for-man-electrocuted-on-football-pitch


Z.
  • 0
    About thirty years ago I received a severe electric shock and feel lucky that I'm still here.  I have always felt a bit silly, being an electrician, that I didn't foresee the danger.


    It was my first day in a Victorian terraced house I'd bought and decided that the first job I should do was to clean out the cast iron gutters as heavy rain was forecast and and I knew they were blocked with moss and leaves etc.  After I'd cleared the front I took a bucket of water up the aluminium ladder and poured it onto the roof by the gutter with the object of checking that the levels were ok and the water all went to the down pipe.  During pouring I got a massive shock from one wet hand holding the bucket to the other hand holding the metal ladder.  I don't know how I didn't fall off the ladder.  Fortunately for me there were no lasting effects.


    Sitting on the garden wall recovering I could see what had happened.  The PME supply from the DNO came overhead via a cable attached to my house just below the gutter, then went across the house, under the gutter and down the wall, entering the house near the front door.  I could see a green streak down the wall half way across the wall where two sections of guttering joined and had obviously been leaking for a very long time onto the power cable.  I've no idea what type of cable it was but it clearly had degraded badly.  The cast iron guttering and drainpipe were not earthed in any way so were probably "live" when it rained.  When I poured the water I became the missing link!


    I thought these cables were always concentric with the live in the middle so don't know how this could have happened.  In the past were they standard twin cable?


    Unsurprisingly, when I phoned the DNO they were round in half an hour and replaced the cable.  I complained to them that it was their fault that I nearly had a lethal shock and they sent me £100!


    Now, if only I'd carried out a full Risk Assesment first........
  • 0

    Foffer:

    About thirty years ago I received a severe electric shock and feel lucky that I'm still here.  I have always felt a bit silly, being an electrician, that I didn't foresee the danger.


    It was my first day in a Victorian terraced house I'd bought and decided that the first job I should do was to clean out the cast iron gutters as heavy rain was forecast and and I knew they were blocked with moss and leaves etc.  After I'd cleared the front I took a bucket of water up the aluminium ladder and poured it onto the roof by the gutter with the object of checking that the levels were ok and the water all went to the down pipe.  During pouring I got a massive shock from one wet hand holding the bucket to the other hand holding the metal ladder.  I don't know how I didn't fall off the ladder.  Fortunately for me there were no lasting effects.


    Sitting on the garden wall recovering I could see what had happened.  The PME supply from the DNO came overhead via a cable attached to my house just below the gutter, then went across the house, under the gutter and down the wall, entering the house near the front door.  I could see a green streak down the wall half way across the wall where two sections of guttering joined and had obviously been leaking for a very long time onto the power cable.  I've no idea what type of cable it was but it clearly had degraded badly.  The cast iron guttering and drainpipe were not earthed in any way so were probably "live" when it rained.  When I poured the water I became the missing link!


    I thought these cables were always concentric with the live in the middle so don't know how this could have happened.  In the past were they standard twin cable?


    Unsurprisingly, when I phoned the DNO they were round in half an hour and replaced the cable.  I complained to them that it was their fault that I nearly had a lethal shock and they sent me £100!


    Now, if only I'd carried out a full Risk Assesment first........




    Hello Foffer,

                            it was all down to bad installation and a lack of maintenance, in your case and in the case of the shocked footballer. I am glad that you survived. The compensation that you received proves that the D.N.O. admitted liability, albeit indirectly. I lived in your county for many years, when it was like The Darling Buds of May countryside, before the Garden of England was churned up to build the channel tunnel links.


    Bye,


    Z.

  • 0
    While it is very tragic for the folk involved, I am not too surprised - it is almost impossible to show that someone deliberately did something dangerous or reckless. It will simply be damage or corrosion/decay not being spotted soon enough due to it falling in the gaps between peoples roles and departmental responsibilities. Had the post rusted at the bottom and fallen on someone, no doubt a similar diffuse responsibility could have applied, unless someone's job description had 'go round and tap each post' in the list of tasks.

    I am a bit surprised for this one though, as I seem to recall someone had reported it to the staff as giving shocks a few weeks prior, and I'd expect any responsible management should have investigated that.

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