An unfortunate electrician was on the job pulling cable in a false ceiling, when he died from electrical shock because he touched a cable. The cable had been marked “not in use” but it was in fact connected.
A contractor and three of its employees are facing charges:
“The charges include failing to provide a safe system of working, training, supervision, risk assessment and resources; failing to test circuits and wires into a distribution board before they were made live; and failing to ensure the board was not live while employees worked on circuits connected to it.”
The defendants deny the charges. The trial is expected to last 3 weeks. The BBC news story is available here.
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The three employees have been cleared, but the company remains on trial as of October 9, 2008. The BBC article reporting this development is at BBC News: Trio Cleared.
According to the article, “Mitie Engineering Services (Edinburgh) Ltd remains on trial over the death.”
The company was found guilty, and will be sentenced next week according to this BBC update.
The company was fined 300,000 Pounds. A news article said “HSE principal inspector Jim Skilling said Mr Adamson was not provided with the necessary test equipment to prove the cable was dead, nor the means to securely isolate the circuit.” This links to a news article with brief comments.