The owner of an electrical services company has paid more than £12,000 in fines and costs after two of his employees suffered facial burns at Liverpool’s ferry terminal.
One of the workers received severe burns to his face and hands, needed three months off work to recover, and required treatment to remove debris from his eyes.
Terence Hayes, the owner of Hayes Electrical and Building Services, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found electrical work had been allowed to go ahead without the power being cut.
Liverpool magistrates court was told his firm had been replacing a temporary generator for the landing stage at the ferry terminal with a supply from the mains. Two of his employees visited the site in April 2009 to install a new fuse into the switchboard at the Pier Head ferry terminal.
The court heard that the work had gone ahead while electricity was still running through the switchboard. When one of the workers tried to install the new fuse, there was a bright flash and intense heat caused by a fire lasting just a few seconds.
Terence Hayes admitted a breach of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 after he allowed his employees to carry out work while the electricity supply was still live. He was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £4,766 costs on 1 September 2011.
Sarah Wadham, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:
"Mr Hayes should simply never have allowed the work to go ahead without the power being cut. The installation and maintenance instructions for the switchboard clearly state work should not be carried out while the electricity supply is live.
"It would have been perfectly reasonable to carry out the work between ferry sailings when the electricity supply at the terminal could have been switched off. That way neither of Mr Hayes’s employees would have been put at risk."
2023 Fire Safety eBook – Grab your free copy!
Download the Fire Safety in 2023 eBook, keeping you up to date with the biggest news and prosecution stories from around the industry. Chapters include important updates such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and an overview of the new British Standard for the digital management of fire safety information.
Plus, we explore the growing risks of lithium-ion battery fires and hear from experts in disability evacuation and social housing.
