cut bare live ends

[DavidEvans007]

hi there, been looking all over the place for info regarding electrical safety in public places... the reason I require the info is because today, my brother in law suffered burns to his arm after cutting through a cable that was clipped to a wall of a house, the cable came out of the ground and was part of an old street lighting circuit that had supposidly been made redundant 10 yrs previously. (they were painting the house and removing the cables to improve cosmetics), the house owner said he was told by the electricity board that everything on the outside of the house was dead when the job was done.

the cable came out the ground, up the wall 8ft then was cut, then there were 2 further single core cables going up the wall to the facia boards on the roof, then along to a 4x4 j/b with what looked like 2 piro cables cut and left, another 2 cables then went to the neighbours house (terraced block) and did the same. the row of terraces on the other side of the ally way had a similar cable going up the wall then terminating in a 4x4 box with 2 further cables exiting this with insulation tape wrapped round the ends.

the cable that blew had a live and neutral with taped ends, the tape had come off one core and was partially missing off the other.

the electricity board were contacted and they sent a guy out, who was the one who did the original work 10yrs previous (weird!), he threw loads of excuses about how they use £15 a roll tape and its common practice, they'd never tell anyone that it was all dead..... etc etc, then phoned the jointers out who came and dug a hole and boxed the cable at its lowest point.... now to me, surely this should have been the result when the original installation was removed.

I'm a maintenance electrician in a factory and any cables we have with un terminated ends, have all been terminated to earth if the other end is known or left in connectors and boxed in with warning labels attached stating may contain live cables.

ive got some pictures that i'll upload to help show.

thanks in advance

 

[sparkwright]

Looking forward to the pictures.

It seems odd to just tape the ends of cables, if there is some doubt it's actually disconnected.

If a cable can't be disconnected, it should be terminated in some kind of enclosure.

Cables like that should be removed by the experts. Always test any cable before cutting. When cutting through a dead cable, always use insulated cutters, and treat it as if it were live.

 

[DavidEvans007]

 

[DavidEvans007]

 

[DavidEvans007]

as you can see, quite a severe burn, he was up a ladder too !... luckily he didn't come off and even more luckily it was a plastic handled hacksaw.... Im always one for saying "oh well"... but on this occasion I told him I consider it to be negligence and consider making a claim against western power, even if he hadn't cut the cable, the possibility of touching the unprotected ends was a serious possibility

on the picture of the house, the taped ends were just below the other 2 you can see, he attempted to cut the cable just after the protective cover on the wall

 

[RF Lighting]

If an unskilled factory worker told you a machine at work was isolated, would you just take their word for it, or would you prove dead before working on it?

If I'm reading this post right, someone hacked through a cable without actually testing for dead, and then was surprised when it exploded?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

So are after advice regarding public or private places.
It is obvious that the electrical board has responsibility here, the question would be what does your brother-in-law want to do about it, I personally would not be happy, if I was informed that an electrical circuit was dead to find out at my cost via injury, that it was not. And this said cable was not only dead but was also unsatisfactory protected from accidental contact. But I would have also double checked any circuit before cutting in to, but that is just a side issue. I think a solicitor maybe worth contacting, definitely contact Citizen Advice.

 

[DavidEvans007]

he's a painter/roofer, how many of them do you know that understand electrical safety or carry test meters?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

he's a painter/roofer, how many of them do you know that understand electrical safety or carry test meters?

That's a fair point if he had been painting the cable, but as he had a hacksaw to it. I would have spent £10 to prevent killing myself.
But get him to call CAB in the morning, make sure he sees a doctor and take it from there.

 

[DavidEvans007]

If an unskilled factory worker told you a machine at work was isolated, would you just take their word for it, or would you prove dead before working on it?

If I'm reading this post right, someone hacked through a cable without actually testing for dead, and then was surprised when it exploded?

I isolate all my own equipment and use the LOTOTO method at work.

this is to do with my brother-in-law who as a painter/roofer isn't electrically savy, i'll throw one back with if you were going on holiday and the aircraft went tech with an engine fault, then a stewardess told you it was fixed, would you check or would you take their word for it?

 

[Adam_151]

As with all accidents, there are several contributing factors

1) Thats very shoddy practice on the part of the supply authority to tape up and leave a live end like that and whatever justification they try and come up with, They'd struggle to argue that they complied with EAWR

2) The painter cut the cable without establishing it was dead, as has been found out, relying on what others tell you is not a safe practice. If he didn't have the correct equipment and knowledge to prove the cable was dead before cutting then he should have not been removing it, either it should have been left in place, or the task should have been passed to someone who could do it safely.

What would the reaction at your place of work be if a painting contractor was found to be cutting out cables that he believed to be redudant and dead and were in the way of the painting and got one that wasn't dead...

Now I wish your brother in law a quick recovery, but I imagine trying to chase this further is going to result in the argument that your BIL was not working in a safe manner

 

[sparkwright]

I don't think it's good enough to be told by the house owner that it was made dead 10 years ago.

That's all you're going by.

Now I agree you don't expect a cable to be left like that. Very negligent. but mistakes do happen, and you must test first.

 

[Lectrician]

I would say it was left taped up with the intention of it being pot ended under ground imminently, but that work was for some reason never done.

If this was up a WPD pole, it would be fine, but this was on a private buildings wall, so not good at all.

However, he really should of got the go ahead from WPD before hacking their cable, not taken the word of the home owner.

Where in WPDs area was this?

 

[DavidEvans007]

It was in Cogan, near penarth, just outside Cardiff

 

[DavidEvans007]

I would say it was left taped up with the intention of it being pot ended under ground imminently, but that work was for some reason never done.

If this was up a WPD pole, it would be fine, but this was on a private buildings wall, so not good at all.

However, he really should of got the go ahead from WPD before hacking their cable, not taken the word of the home owner.

Where in WPDs area was this?

The house on the other side of the ally is the same, taped up ends... When I suggested they fix that too I was ignored