Liverpool dock workers injured in high voltage shock

Date:

8 September 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/38Carrylift

A crane maintenance firm has been sentenced after two dock workers suffered injuries in a high voltage electric shock at the Seaforth Container Terminal in Liverpool.

The crane platform where the workers suffered high-voltage electric shocks

One of the men was temporarily blinded and both were burned in the 6,600 volt surge after climbing up a dockside crane to check the electricity supply on 12 March 2008.

Their employer, Carrylift Materials Handling Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation revealed the workers wrongly believed that just 415 volts were running through a junction box on a crane platform six metres above the ground.

Liverpool Magistrates' Court heard that Lee McFadden, a maintenance worker at the site, was asked to look at the crane to investigate why there had been a power failure.

The 33 year old from Aintree, Liverpool, decided he needed the assistance of an electrician to fix the fault and climbed back up on the crane platform with three electricians. All four men thought that it was a low voltage crane, similar to the one next to it, and had not been given any information or diagrams that said otherwise.

After undoing the bolts on the junction box, Mr McFadden used his low-voltage multimeter to test the electricity supply. There was an immediate flash and bang, causing him to be blinded for approximately 15 seconds.

Mr McFadden sustained severe burns to his face and hands, and was permanently scarred as a result. One of the electricians also suffered minor burns to his face.

The HSE investigation found that none of the men had received adequate training or been given sufficient information about the electricity supplies to the dockside cranes.

Carrylift Materials Handling Ltd admitted three breaches of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. The company, of Peel Road in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £14,568 in prosecution costs on 8 September 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, the investigating inspector at HSE, Dave Guyers, said:

"Two of the men suffered burns as a result of this incident, but all four could easily have been killed.

"They should never have been allowed to work on the crane without being given proper information and training by their employer, and without confirmation that the power supply had first been cut.

"Mr McFadden was not trained as an electrician and therefore should not have been allowed to carry out electrical work on the crane.

"In this case, all four men were put at risk because their employer did not have procedures in place to ensure electrical work was carried out safely. Mr McFadden was very fortunate that this incident did not have more serious consequences."

Details on simple precautions that can be taken to reduce the risk of electrical injury are available at www.hse.gov.uk/electricity.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 4(3) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 states: "Every work activity, including operation, use and maintenance of a system and work near a system, shall be carried out in such a manner as not to give rise, so far as is reasonably practicable, to danger."
3. Regulation 14 states: "No person shall be engaged in any work activity on or so near any live conductor (other than one suitably covered with insulating material so as to prevent danger) that danger may arise..."
4. Regulation 16 states: "No person shall be engaged in any work activity where technical knowledge or experience is necessary to prevent danger or, where appropriate, injury, unless he possesses such knowledge or experience, or is under such degree of supervision as may be appropriate having regard to the nature of the work."

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