That just makes the idiots work harder, when the point is to stop them behaving as idiots at all.
Many isolator switches look like this:
Somewhere I still have the severed hand (rubber) holding such a sign that I used to use on power presses.
If you would care to read the op's original post you would note that the switch is in a steel box fitted with a padlock.
The *point* is to minimise risk by any and all appropriate methods.
I don't know your boss, but I'd suggest you write some notes to take in with you so you don't forget anything. This will make you think clearly about what you want to say beforehand, and it will show your manager that you thought the incident was serious enough prepare your comments in advance, which could add as much weight again as the actual points themselves.
Functional switching should be handled differently from isolation for maintenance. They might both need to be key operated, but that doesn't mean they need to use the same keys or switches.
Including, I hope, a strong suggestion that the person who turned the power back on must be severely disciplined, and preferably sacked, as an example to himself and others.
If the manager is failing to institute a safe system of work under the Electricity at Work Regulations he may be personally liable.
Owain
It might be worth printing off some of the HSE guidance, there are a couple of useful links here
Owain
If the tools to break a lockoff are removed it reduces their options.
2 - Electrician uses their padlock which must NOT be a safety typeThereby being more difficult to simply break open with a screwdriver. Safety padlocks are often weak so a lost key doesn't mean broken (& live) equipment.
3 - Electrician should wear 00 or 0 safey gloves and assume live workingPlenty ways to become a conductor across L-N without an imbalance tripping an RCD.
4 - Most difficult - do the Directors know (as they risk criminal charges)Directors can only control that which they know - both re policy & enforcement. Your difficulty is finding out - any admin staff aware of the problem as they can actually be useful at casual contact & dropping a comment "cutting the lockout nearly killed someone today". Realise it need not
*just* be the electrician that is killed, realise it is perfectly possible for it to be a whole group of people if metalwork becomes live.The problems suggest a deeper *political* problem re management and perhaps certain personnel re intimidation, blackmail, whatever. So tread lightly. No matter what, an electrician must be confident a locked-off circuit will remain so. Indeed their electrical body CAN involve H&S. Perhaps the best route is to get someone else purely as a H&S reporter whilst keeping the existing electrician whose life is probably not that great if he is willing to put up with this.
this
Somewhere I still have the severed hand (rubber) holding such a sign that I used to use on power presses.
LOL :-)
I had an old plastic head, from a hair dressers shop, decorated with splashes of red paint. The warning sign was mounted behind the blooded left ear with a big nail. It caught the attention very quickly. :-)
I remember the story of the sparks in the bonded warehouse. He was jolted along a conveyor belt when working on one of the lighting circuits. Working after hours not to interrupt the production line and not expecting anyone to be there at those hours, he had put red insulting tape over the switch to stop it being used, but the cleaner just pulled the tape off and switched on the lights. Not to serious a burn, but it left its mark on him.
To stop the idiots, why not just lock up the bolt croppers?
Dave
Coupled with a bloody big sign
In message , Dave writes
Sound more like they should lock up the idiots.
I have now discovered that there is yet another isolation switch elsewhere in a locked metal cabinet. The electrician had switched that off as well as putting a "Danger Leave Off" sign on the other switch. When he switched the second isolation switch on again he noticed that it was live. So no real danger then. A new padlock on the first switch for just him will solve the problem I think. Moral of the story - don't assume that people will read warning signs.
*This time*
Fact remains that somebody deliberately over-rode a safety lockout and that cannot go unreported.
Next time there might not be a second isolator, or someone might over- ride that as well.
Owain
There's a new temporary padlock for the first switch complete with a new large double-sided red sign. Only the electrician has a key. He always supervises the work. None of the morons knows about the second isolation switch or has a key to that box. I think the system is now safe enough. Unfortunately the world is full of unobservant morons. We can't get rid of all of them. Some of them may be useful in other ways.
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