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Fatal Incident - Safe Isolation failure?

jbrameld

What do we think on this incident, reported a bit differently in these two locations:

Whilst very sad and no-one should lose their life in the workplace (or anywhere else) I can't help thinking that an engineer of 30 years' experience should have been familiar with safe isolation procedures, and perhaps these were not followed.  There are of course many unreported possibilities such as multiple supply sources not identified but if you follow the mantra of poking a verified test device probe in before anything else (like your fingers or a screwdriver….), then your chances of falling victim are much reduced.

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    I actually think that the “Safe isolation procedure” taught to us is flawed

    I tend to agree. Even with the test-for-live, isolate, test-for-dead procedure it's possible for the wrong thing to be isolated but the test-for-dead still to show dead as the machine has been halted, coincidentally, by some other mechanism - say a thermostat or perhaps in this case a pressure switch - only for the power to then return, automatically as it were, some time later while maintenance is still on-going.

    Hard to see an easy solution to that kind of situation, but worth keeping in mind all the same.

    Borrowed neutrals add another layer of danger - as they can test ‘dead’ but turn live as soon as they're disconnected.

       - Andy.

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  • 0

    I actually think that the “Safe isolation procedure” taught to us is flawed

    I tend to agree. Even with the test-for-live, isolate, test-for-dead procedure it's possible for the wrong thing to be isolated but the test-for-dead still to show dead as the machine has been halted, coincidentally, by some other mechanism - say a thermostat or perhaps in this case a pressure switch - only for the power to then return, automatically as it were, some time later while maintenance is still on-going.

    Hard to see an easy solution to that kind of situation, but worth keeping in mind all the same.

    Borrowed neutrals add another layer of danger - as they can test ‘dead’ but turn live as soon as they're disconnected.

       - Andy.

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