A safety switch on every circuit in every home: MEA

A new report launched today has found that Australians are continuing to lose their lives to electrocution, more than 16 months after urgent recommendations were handed down to mandate the installation of safety switches across the country.

Master Electricians Australia’s (MEA) Switch Thinking Report 2015/2016 update has found that 15 people die in Australian homes each year in electrical accidents.

The industry body said these deaths would be saved by a simple safety switch; however, no state or territory government has been willing to mandate their installation.

MEA CEO Malcolm Richards said almost two and a half years have passed since Coroner Michael Barnes adopted MEA’s urgent recommendations to mandate safety switches on all circuits following the electrocution of three young workers during the then-federal government’s botched Home Insulation Program (HIP); and more than 18 months have passed since Commissioner Ian Hanger followed suit after the Royal Commission into the HIP.

“People like trades workers Matthew Fuller, Reuben Barnes and Mitchell Sweeney who died during the HIP in Queensland, or electrical workers like young Jayden Zapelli who died while helping to install a light fitting at a house in Western Australia, and residents such as the two men electrocuted at their unit just two months ago in New South Wales, shouldn’t have died simply because there was no safety switch to cut the flow of electricity,” said Richards.

“A safety switch is designed to cut the power to an electrical circuit within as little as 0.03 of a second in the event of an electric shock, and the technology is widely available and relatively cheap within the context of a home.

“But while ever our governments sit on their hands and refuse to legislate their installation, these senseless and tragic deaths will continue.”

The report has found that in addition to 15 deaths each year, as many as 300 people are hospitalised with serious electrical injuries and burns.

“My commitment to these small and simple devices started when my life was saved by one as a teenager and grew ever stronger during my time as an electrical inspector, investigating electrocution accidents,” said Richards.

“The daunting job of communicating with grieving relatives was made all the more distressing by having to explain that for as little as $200 their loved one could still have been alive.”

The report conservatively estimates that there is still a deficit of around 30 million safety switches across Australia.

“We believe the responsibility rests with legislators and policymakers. Just as seatbelts and bicycle helmets have become mandatory across Australia, so too must governments move to mandate safety switches on every circuit in every home,” he added.