Company Fined Over Cable Incident

A workplace injury expert at Irwin Mitchell has called on all companies to ensure they take the right steps to sufficiently protect their staff from risks.

Lawyer David Urpeth commented after Birmingham firm Magna Heating Company was fined for an incident in which one of its workers struck an 11kv underground cable while using a handheld mini-breaker to dig through concrete.

The unnamed employee suffered second degree burns to his face and neck, while he was also kept off work for five weeks. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive suggested that the company had failed to do enough to protect the worker from potential harm.

Discussing the outcome of the case, accident at work claims expert David Urpeth said: “This case needs to serve as a warning to companies that they will face consequences if they fail to put employee safety higher up their agenda.

“The threat that can be posed by underground cables is common knowledge so it is clear that more attention should have been paid to protecting the worker involved in this case.

“It is vital that lessons are learnt from this and efforts are made to prevent any similar incidents happening again.”