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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Workmen escaped death in close contact with 11kV cable
A contractor from Pilning, Gloucestershire, has been prosecuted and fined £500 with £260 costs at Bath Magistrates' Court for breaching health and safety legislation in the circumstances of an incident in which two employees struck an 11kV underground cable while using a pneumatic hammer at traffic lights on the A38 in Bristol during November 2003.
****** ***** was contracted for the work by Siemens, the two workmen excavated without the benefit of a cable location plan and a cable locating device. The men should have been instructed to hand-dig, one of them escaped with only a minor injury, the other sustained serious head burns.
HSE says around 1000 electrical accidents at work are reported to them each year and about 30 people die of their injuries. It has prepared an informative Electrical safety webpage on the subject of staying safe near electricity.
