Hexham-based wooden panel supplier Egger (UK) Ltd and Northern Construction Solutions Ltd, of Chester-le-Street, were both prosecuted yesterday (25th March) by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) for failings with the management of groundworks.
Newcastle Magistrates’ Court was told that the cable strike occurred on 19 March 2013 during work being undertaken for Egger’s subsidiary company, Campact Ltd, on Egger’s Hexham site. The groundworks and civil engineering works were subcontracted to Northern Construction Solutions Ltd.
On the day of the incident two workers, engaged on behalf of Northern Construction Solutions, were asked to excavate the area in front of a newly-built electric substation for the installation of drainage. During the work the bucket of an excavator came into contact with a 20kV underground electric cable.
Both workers avoided injury, but it was a serious incident that warranted an HSE investigation. Inspectors found that Egger was responsible for the provision of a services diagram that included the location of underground electric cables, and was also responsible for keeping it updated.
However, they failed to update this diagram following the earlier construction of the substation and re-routing of the electric cables. Consequently Northern Construction Solutions was not provided with up-to-date information regarding the location of the cables.
The court heard that although it was the duty of Egger to provide Northern Construction Solutions with appropriate information regarding the location of electric cables, the contractors equally had a duty to provide workers under their control with the information they needed. Instead, they accepted the out-of-date services diagram, even though they knew there had been changes made in the area to be excavated.
Egger (UK) Ltd, of Anick Grange Road, Hexham, Northumberland, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £578.90 costs after pleading guilty to breaching regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
Northern Construction Solutions Ltd, of 6 Lumley Court, Drum Road, Chester le Street, Co Durham, was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £761.60 costs after pleading guilty to breaching regulation 13(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
After the case, HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said: “Fortunately nobody was hurt in this incident. However, the potential for serious, even fatal, injuries was foreseeable. Had both Egger and Northern Construction Solutions adequately planned and managed the risks arising from contact with live underground cables before the excavation work started, e.g. isolation of the services, provision of up-to-date and accurate information on the location of the underground services, then this incident would have most probably been avoided.
“The construction industry needs to be more aware of the dangers of working in the vicinity of live underground services. Appropriate planning and control measures should always be in place. A failure to do so could result in inadvertent contact with the live cables, the consequences of which can be fatal.”
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