Electrical firm fined $21,500 after near-death of apprentice

An apprentice electrician is lucky to be alive after an electric shock left him unresponsive and without a pulse while working at a property in Mandurah.

The January 2020 incident was described at Mandurah Magistrates Court this month following Building and Energy’s prosecution of the apprentice’s employer, Xtra Solutions Pty Ltd (EC12559) trading as Xtra Electrical. The Halls Head company was fined a total of $21,500 and ordered to pay costs of $343.50 after pleading guilty to two offences under WA’s Electricity Licensing Regulations.

The court was told that the second-year apprentice and his supervising electrical worker attended a commercial premises to disconnect and remove an electric hot water unit. While on a phone call, the supervising electrician directed the 19-year-old apprentice towards a kitchen cabinet where the younger man started to cut and disconnect the wiring on the hot water unit inside.

Shortly after, the apprentice received an electric shock of up to 240 volts and was unable to let go of the electrified cable in his hand for at least 30 seconds.

The supervising electrician and property tenant pulled him away from the cabinet area and began CPR. Paramedics arrived within seven minutes and found the apprentice had stopped breathing and had no pulse — fortunately they were able to resuscitate him with a defibrillator.

A Building and Energy investigation found a circuit breaker that supplied power to cabling in the cabinet was left on during the work, resulting in some cables remaining energised or “live”.

Xtra Solutions Pty Ltd was fined $20,000 for ineffective supervision because the supervising electrician failed to adequately isolate relevant parts of the electrical installation prior to the work, to ensure the apprentice would not come into contact with live components.

The company was fined an additional $1500 because the apprentice did not hold an electrician’s training licence, which was required for the work he carried out at the property.

Magistrate Leanne Atkins said the apprentice had been “brought back, in effect, from the dead” and the young man no longer wanted to work in the electrical industry. She added that electricians and electrical companies should note the significant penalties imposed for endangering a person by failing to supervise.

WA’s Director of Energy Safety, Saj Abdoolakhan, said it was unacceptable for an employer to place a trainee in such a dangerous situation by failing to ensure the installation was not live, as required by law. “This incident could have easily been a tragedy for a young man at the start of his career,” he said.

“These laws are in place to ensure employers do the right thing by their apprentices and keep them safe.

“I urge the industry to ensure they isolate and test all electrical installations to verify they are properly de-energised prior to anyone working on them.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Eakrin