Question

Activity- ELECTRICAL SAFETY ACCIDENT

As a Manager you have responsibility for a large kitchen.

This contains a water softener unit through which water has to pass before being delivered to a dishwasher. The water softener unit had been causing problems recently so you agree with the kitchen manager to call in the maintenance contractor to look at the equipment. The equipment, which consists of a tall cylinder is located underneath a sink draining tray in the corner of the kitchen.

After carrying out some remedial work the contractor decides to test out the functioning of the equipment. The equipment is fitted with a time clock which means that the operating cycle can be set by kitchen staff. To check that the unit is coming on and off according to the timed settings the contractor removes a cover from the unit.

The cover is posted with an electrical hazard warning sign. Removal of the cover gave the contractor access to a cam, the rotation of which operates, or switches off, the equipment according to the time settings. This is a quick way of working through the time cycle.

The electrical hazard warning sign relates to the hazard arising from two electrical terminals which depending on the position of the cam are either electrically live i.e. when equipment is switched on, or dead i.e. when equipment is switched off. During this simulation of the unit’s operating cycle the contractor was sat on the tiled floor underneath the sink draining board with his legs extending beyond the sink into the kitchen.

While doing this a member of the kitchen staff went into this area and saw the contractor was ‘shaking’. At first she was slightly embarrassed as she thought the contractor was ‘having a fit’ and did not immediately mention it to her supervisor. When she did, they went to see the contractor and, getting no response from him, switched the equipment off at the mains before removing him from underneath the sink. An ambulance was then called and the contractor taken to hospital where he was detained overnight, then discharged. The contractor had sustained an electric shock rather than a ‘fit’.

As Manager of this area, using the facts provided and any reasonable assumptions you wish to make,

* outline the (causative) factors leading to this accident with reference to failures
in safe plant & equipment; competent staff; safety culture; and safe systems
of work / safe procedures

* identify

* what are the responsibilities of your organisation for the contractor

* what health and safety information should have been obtained from the contractor

* what, if any, action should be taken against the contractor

* recommendations on what should be done to avoid a recurrence

* also identify possible breaches of statutory legislation and comment on how significant / serious these are

*should be between 500-750 words and must include your name, registration number, word count and set out the brief. Where appropriate, referencing should be provided.

Answer 1

The main causes of this type of accidents are:

1. Short circuit of main lines and equipment.

2. Equipment is working to treat water softener, Water is a good conductor of electricity. So probability to get shock are high in chances.

3. Proper Earthing is not provide to the equipment.

4. Authorized persons of Electrical department must give permission and maintenance certificate to do work inside the equipment.

5. Electrical Department must ensure that their is no residual currents and short circuits are their in the equipment.

6. Equipment must be isolated from the Main supply before the maintenance get to work.

Responsibilities of our Organisation for the contractor:

1. Health precautions must be informed to contractor while entering into the work.

2. when contractor faces problem with any accident in the working place, Organisation should take responsibilities of the contractor.

3. Financial support and Hospital expenses must paid the Organisation.

4. at the time of hiring of the contractor, Organisation must provide legal document to the contractor to safety and health management system policy.

Health and Safety information obtained from the contractor:

1. Health and safety information are different for different organisation and their policies.

2. for this water treatment unit , Organisation must collect safety and health information related to the effects of chemical reactions with the contractor body.

3. Contractor must be in attention to do the work. Information about the alcohol consumption and sleeping duration before the working day.

4. Developing and executing health and safety plans in the workplace according to legal guidelines.

5. Contractor health condition must be in healthy to do work and contractor must not have any heart problems and illness at the time of working.

Actions should be taken against the contractor if health issues are their:

1. Must take precautions while entering into the cam like mask, safety gloves, body suit for protection from hazard chemicals and electrical safety.

2. Organisation should not encourage contractor with health issues, and ask the contractor the replace another person to do the work.

3. Organisation could not take risks with unhealthy contractor, when any incident happen to the contractor, Organisation loss lots of income with the equipment.

4. proper medical team must be examine the contractor and give necessary precautions at the time of work.

Recommendations to avoid recurrence:

1. Additional duties of Safety officer is to maintain the safety activity in plant, to conduct the safety oath in plant premises, to conduct & organized the Sub-Safety committee meeting with help of concern Department.

2. Proper & effectively implementation of corrective & preventive action of accident/incident.

3. Electrical Department in the Organisation must give permission that equipment is safe to work.

4. Medical Department must check the contractor health is in proper and he didnot consume any alcohol before the working day.

5. Proper training is necessary for all Contractors, especially if there is a risk for potential injury associated with a job. Provide written instructions and safe work procedures so they can check for themselves if they are unsure of a task or have forgotten part of their training.

6. Even if an incident does not result in a serious injury, conduct an incident investigation to help determine why an incident happened so you can take steps to ensure that it will not recur.

7. Keep records of all first aid treatment, inspections, incident investigations, and training activities. This information can help you identify trends in unsafe conditions or work procedures.

Identify possible breaches of statutory legislation:

1. Without any prior information about the work will leads to the serious problem when contractor get any accident.

2. These type of Issues leads to the impose fine on the organisation, in the worst caste government will cease the Organisation.

3. Proper and legal proceedings will help in the case of accident/incidents in the workplace.

4. Organisation must be in a way to support the employee as well as organisation must look their own risk and safety precautions in the accidents.