An electrician sustained burns to his face, hands and wrists after an “arc flashover” while he was involved in testing another company’s electrical system.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the man failed to wear protective clothing which could have prevented his injuries, but told bosses at his firm that he had.
McGill Electrical Ltd of Harrison Road was fined £2,000 by Sheriff Alastair Brown on Friday after the company admitted a breach of Health & Safety legislation.
Gordon Roberts, then aged 38, from Dundee, spent nine days in hospital following the incident on December 2, 2010.
The resultant HSE investigation concluded that the firm had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for the task of removing and replacing the bolted covers while the distribution boards were live and had also failed to have in place a safe system of work by failing to ensure that the electricity supply to the distribution boards was de-energised during removal and replacement of the covers.
The court heard Mr Roberts was replacing the cover on one of the live distribution boards when part of it came into contact with a live conductor, causing an arc flashover.
He had climbed a stepladder to remove the covers to gain access to the live conductors.
However, on manoeuvring one of the bolted covers back into position after the testing, a corner of the cover appears to have come into contact with live parts causing an electrical arc flashover.
His colleague heard a bang and there was a flash just before all the lights went out and the room filled with smoke. Mr Roberts, who was not wearing the correct protective equipment supplied to him, was thrown off the stepladder but was able to walk out of the substation unaided.
The manufacturing firm’s safety manager used snow in an attempt to cool Mr Robert’s burns before an ambulance arrived.
Mr Roberts made a full recovery and returned to work two months later.
Following the case, HSE Inspector Mac Young said: “This incident was wholly preventable. It was foreseeable that a metal plate being manipulated in close proximityto live conductors could inadvertently touch live parts and cause a flashover.
“The system of work, which involved removal and replacement of bolted covers while the system was live, and without knowing what was behind the covers, exposed Mr Roberts to unnecessary risk.”
Sheriff Brown said the culpability of the company was at the “lower end of the scale” and described McGill Electrical as a “highly responsible company delivering a nationally-respected system which had given intensive training and provided significant safety measures including a direction instruction to don protective clothing.”
He said there had been “significant harm” done to Mr Roberts.
However, he said, McGill had taken steps to avoid that happening by providing him with protective clothing, which, he added “not only he failed to use but he also told them he was wearing that equipment”.
Due to that, he said, the responsibility of the company was “rather low”.
He added: “This is a responsible company with a good safety record which pays close attention to safety and they took “dramatic” remedial action after the accident.