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#1 Posted : 30 April 2001 07:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ian Mycroft Can anyone help? A contractor working for my organisation was digging a hole through concrete with a "Kango" breaker when he struck a National Grid 275,000 volt cable. Lukily, and I don't know how, he was not killed and was taken to hospital with burns to the face and hands. Eventually we heard that he was being kept in hospital for observation but it was expected that he make a full recovery. I reported this as a major injury using the new website, but the National Grid people said it should have been reported anyway because of the high voltage. I have checked the RIDDOR regs. and HSE guidance but can't find where this is mentioned, are there other Regs that I should be looking at, perhaps relating the National Grid or other specific area?
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#2 Posted : 30 April 2001 07:55:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jack See Dangerous Occurence No. 5 in Schedule 2.
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#3 Posted : 30 April 2001 12:31:00(UTC)
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Posted By Frank Cooper Ian, You also need to be aware of the requirements of HS(G)47, the HSE publication on avoiding danger from underground services. I suspect that the National Grid are asking why plans were not asked for or why cable locating devices were not used if a cable has been damaged through excavation work. Hope this helps, Frank Cooper
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#4 Posted : 30 April 2001 13:35:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ian Mycroft Thanks chaps, I've been continuing the investigation into the incident. At the time I didn't think that no. 5 in Schedule 2 applied because my understanding was that there was no fire or explosion, on further investigation, there was in fact fire and explosion, but it has now been reported anyway. The contractors did not ask for drawings showing the location of services because they came on site through a rear public entrance and started work without informing us that they were on site, breaking all our safety procedures, of which they were aware. They did use a CAT to investigate and got a wild reading but continued anyway, despite the National Grid markers being clearly visible. The question now is, where do we stand legally as far as responsibility, we have all the procedures in place to avoid incidents like this, but the contractor still circumvents them. Does that make him liable for the conseqences. We can't tighten up on site access as we are a public service organisation and so the public must have free access to large sites.
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#5 Posted : 01 May 2001 10:04:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jim Walker Hi Ian, My understanding as a result of Associated Octel case etc, is that you are still liable for your contractor. Hit him where it hurts regarding future work. Ultimatly you also you ought to make the rest of us aware who he is. I guess the only way to do this without libel consequences, is to sue him.
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