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Worker's death prompts inquiry
A council worker who was electrocuted would not have died if he had been trained to use the correct equipment, an inquest heard.
Ben Richardson, 29, of Squires Ride in Grovehill, Hemel Hempstead, died after he cut an electric cable thinking it was a water main.
An inquest into his death last Wednesday (August 29) revealed the father of two, who worked for Dacorum Borough Council, did not use a special tool to check if the cable was live because he had not been properly trained.
Two cable avoidance tools (CATs), which detect electrical currents were kept at the council's Paradise Housing Depot in a locked cupboard. But Mr Richardson's workmate Jerry Courtney said: "We didn't know how to use it. It was far too complicated and we didn't know where it was kept."
He said they were shown how to use a CAT during '20 to 30 minutes' of a training course in 1998 but had never used one.
Both men worked as wet trades operatives for the council's housing repairs service. They were called to Jarman Close in Hemel Hempstead on November 9 last year to help council plumbers working to fix a burst water main.
The water main's stopcock was broken so they dug up the garden to repair the pipe.
But Mr Richardson clamped the electric main after mistaking it for the water pipe. The cable ruptured sending a massive current through his body.
Because the house was built in the 1960s, the water pipe and the electric cable are both black in colour making them hard to identify.
Mr Courtney said: "Ben was laying face down. I said are you ok but as I said it I was dialling 999.
"I sat with Ben and kept talking to him. There was no response. I knew it was electrical and I knew he was dead."
Mr Richardson was pronounced dead at Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
A jury at the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death and recorded that Mr Richardson died of cardiorespiratory failure due to electrocution.
Trevor Morrow, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said that Mr Richardson had used the wrong type of clamp, which had been given to them by a water board worker, and said a CAT machine should have been used to check the cable.
He said: "It is a sophisticated bit of equipment. You won't learn to use it in 20 to 30 minutes on a training course but you will with use and experience.
"I think the one they were trained to use wasn't the same as the one they had at Dacorum Borough Council so they would have had to be trained again. If it had been available and was used it would have made a difference."
Stephen Fitzgerald, an assistant manager at the council's depot at the time of the accident, said risk assessments were given to workers and method statements, detailing how to carry out certain tasks, were in the process of being drawn up.
Mr Morrow said: "None of the risk assessments covered the activity they were engaged in on that day. There should have been a risk assessment that addressed the use of CATs.
"If you're working with a cable and you haven't identified it then you're working on a 50/50 chance you will get it wrong.
"I think they were really lucky for many years."
During the inquest at Hatfield coroner's court Mr Courtney said they had been working under added pressure.
A HSE investigation is ongoing. A council spokesman said an internal investigation had been conducted and changes made to prevent future accidents.
This investigation revealed that neither of the CAT machines had been readily available and there was no formal record of on site inspections that would have highlighted training needs. There were also no records to show that risk assessments were regularly bought to the attention of workers.
Colleagues pay tribute to popular, family man
Workers at the council's depot have paid tribute to their popular colleague.
Mr Courtney described Mr Richardson as a 'family man' who 'touched the lives of the people he met'. He said: "Ben was like a son to me. We had been working together for nine years. We never had one argument. We used to laugh everyday. I had seen him grow from a boy when he first joined the council to him getting married and having children."
Mr Richardson, a Liverpool Football Club fan, set up and ran a local children's football club called Echoes Youth. Mr Courtney said: "He was a great friend. He would always help me, nothing was too much trouble. As a person he was beautiful."
Ken Parkhouse, a line manager at the depot, had known Mr Richardson since he was a young child. He said: "Ben was a very genuine person and very bubbly. He was liked by everyone and he is sadly missed.
"He would always have a laugh and a joke with people. He loved his football and was really into his gardening.
"Even now we still expect him to walk in each morning. The depot will never get over
what happened. It is just quiet without him.".
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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