The Problem:
In 2007, there were four reported deaths by electrocution. All four were work-related and were attributed to “not following correct work procedure”. Two of the fatalities were electrical workers; one electrician died by “knowingly working live”. The rate of injury due to working on or near live equipment has increased by 45% from 1998 to 2006. While the incidence of death has remained relatively consistent, in many cases injury would have been avoided had the worker simply chose not to do the work until the proper safety measures were in place. The facts are these:
- 80% of electrical workers have worked live on sites that they identified as being a high or above average risk.
- 76% identified that the circuits they were working on were not disconnected, and yet,
- 44% of these workers felt they could do this work without injury or serious harm, and
- 70% have worked on live 347 volt circuits without demanding any form of risk-prevention.
- There were 70 occupational-related electrical deaths in Ontario between 1998 and 2007 – an average of seven deaths per year.
- Occupational electrocutions have always outnumbered non-occupational.
These statistics are startling, and the reasons these men and women are working live are often very complicated. The “tradition” of working live has been the norm for over 100 years, but does that make it acceptable to risk not only the lives of the workers, but the well-being of their families? Often personal, on-site job safety is a secondary concern when there is a fast approaching deadline, peer pressure, a “cowboy attitude” and a supervisor breathing down your neck.
In some instances, the person asking the worker to perform high-risks tasks are ignorant of the issue altogether as they may be unfamiliar with the work being done. Most of the time, however, these requests are done knowingly and the people in charge should know better.