Council fined £37,000 for electrocuted worker

A Hartfordshire council has been fined £37,000 after a worker was electrocuted while fixing a burst water main.

Ben Richardson, 29, died on 9 November 2006 when he incorrectly clamped an electricity cable at a Hemel Hampstead home, thinking it was a water main.

The cable and the mains were of a similar size and colour, which made them hard to distinguish.

Mr Richardson, a worker in Dacorum Borough Council’s housing relief team, was killed when the cable ruptured and sent a massive current through his body.

The council was fined £37,000 and ordered to pay £17,500 costs in the St Albans Magistrate’s Court today after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the system of work used to detect the water supply did not use a cable avoidance tool (CAT) to detect the electric current.

Mr Richardson’s workmate said they had been shown how to use a CAT during “20 or 30 minutes” as part of a training course eight years earlier.

HSE inspector Trevor Morrow said: “The CAT is a sophisticated piece of equipment. You won’t learn to use it competently during 20 to 30 minutes on a training course, but you will with regular use and experience.

“The CAT they were trained on was a different model to the one that was kept at Dacorum Borough Council, so they would have had to be trained again.”