Luke’s story: Working near energised electrical equipment

Keith: Luke went to work one morning, he was doing the job that all sparkies might be doing, the loss of awareness of working near energised equipment, then it all went bad. Hey, Luke. How are you?

Luke: I'm good. How are you?

Keith: Tell us a bit about yourself.

Luke: I started out my apprenticeship as a marine electrician, moved into residential. Um, moved into industrial controls. Uh, construction equipment. Um yeah, three-phase pumps, mobile plant equipment, yeah, that sort of thing.

Keith: Family?

Luke: Yeah, I've got two young girls and a wife and yeah.

Keith: Any hobbies?

Luke: Bit of camping, four-wheel driving, fishing. Yeah, whenever we get a chance we like to get away.

Keith: The average family guy.

Luke: Yeah.

Keith: So on that day, Luke, you turned up to work. What was the environment like where you were working?

Luke: The homeowner just demolished and rebuilt a new house on the existing property. We work on a switchboard. It was mounted to a property pole external to the house. Yeah, it was a blue skies, sunny afternoon, but it was really damp on the ground, it had been raining earlier that day, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Keith: You've done this sort of work before?

Luke: 100 times. It's just another, just another job. It's just another job.

Keith: And when you started the job, did you   take in, undertake your risk assessments or would you be verbal or written down on paper?

Luke: Yeah, it was a verbal risk assessment, so me and my offsider, we deemed that it was necessary for the tools to be there. Basically, what we're doing, we were running the sub mains to the new house into an existing switchboard and replacing the sub busbar to accommodate the extra load. It was just a conversation. It was an informal conversation. We had a main switch, we isolated the main switch. We had a hot water circuit, present, so we discussed that.

Keith: So the board was turned off at the main switch?

Luke: It was isolated at the main switch, and what we're doing, we're removing the existing busbar, replacing that with a longer one to incorporate the new. It was just a standard job.

Keith: So as you're undertaking that task, tell us then what happened.

Luke: So I had my left hand on the left-hand side of the switchboard. I was using my right hand to… The job was done. We were just going back over all the terminals, well I was making sure everything was tight before we energised. My right hand, I was focused on my right hand, and then I received a shock that was… I couldn't explain it because I couldn't understand why I was getting a shock.

Keith: Because your board was turned off.

Luke: The… Yeah, the main switch of the board was turned off.  Yeah. As I said, without, just complacent, I guess, my left hand dropped down to the top of the main switch. Consumer's mains were feeding into the main switch because we had the busbar going underneath. So, yeah, so my left hand dropped down on top of the, across the three phases and between the main switch and, it earthed out.

Keith: Because you weren't wearing gloves, were you?

Luke: No, I wasn't. No.

Keith: Did you get one shock and you let go, or were you hooked up?

Luke: I couldn't let go. I was hung up. I was, yeah. And that's what I was a bit confused about because I was focused on my right hand, what I was… I wasn't holding onto anything.

Keith: And for the people watching this, what do you mean you couldn't let go?

Luke: It's just all your muscles everywhere just contract. It just feels like everything, your shoulders pull in, everything. You just lose all control over your muscles. I tried to call out to my offsider. I knew he was there around me somewhere, but I couldn't turn around to see him. I couldn't… I tried to call out to him. I couldn't get any words out. It was just, yeah.

Keith: You couldn't let go.

Luke: It's frightening, yeah.

Keith: How did you get off?

Luke: He got me off. Yeah. He told me he followed his training, tried to do the fly kick multiple times. He's… We had jokes later, you know, around, he liked to be able to kick the boss in the ribs. And he got the opportunity. Yeah, very thankful that he did.

Keith: You know when we're working on or near energised equipment, about being safe and isolated upstream, and that safety of observers and rescue kits, but you didn't see a need. You thought it was, the board's turned off, it's safe to work on, other than the line side live. There was no need for that.

Luke: Yeah. I knew where it was. I knew what was live. I knew not to touch it. So I didn't…You know, it's a job I've done 100 times before. I didn't feel that there was any risk because I knew not to touch those terminals.

Keith: And inadvertently, on a day doing a task, that's what happened.

Luke: I made contact, yeah.

Keith: I understand that after your offsider got you off and performed CPR and contacted the ambulance, you were taken to hospital.

Luke: Yes.

Keith: Tell us about what happened in the hospital that you remember.

Luke: I remember the trip to hospital was long. It was, I remember, yeah, I remember looking up at the heart monitoring machine, and I remember just seeing the numbers 156 beats a minute. I was watching.

Keith: Well, lucky it was still going, your heart.

Luke: Yeah, yeah.

Keith: When you went to hospital and they did the monitoring, what other injuries did you have?

Luke: I remember because of my muscle contractions, my teeth, all my teeth went loose because just… clamping down so hard. You know, days later, I just felt like my kneecaps were going to come up my knees. It was just the pain everywhere. Everywhere.

Keith: They talk about, they talk about when you have electric shocks, it also affects emotions.

Luke: Yes.

Keith: Did you experience any of that?

Luke: Yeah, it was, you know, it's a shock to the confidence. It's a shock to, like, emotions, like anxiety just driving to work in the morning. Like, when you know the job ahead of you, like if you know you're going to be working on a switchboard today, you're going through the job in your head and it's… you know, change of perspective.

Keith: Yep. Well, speaking of perspective, so if you went to do that same job tomorrow, what would you do differently?

Luke: Upstream isolation. Yeah. I don't… There's not even a second thought to it now.

Keith: There hazard's of electricity and you've got to remove it to ensure that you get to come home each day.

Luke: That's right. That's right. There's, just turn off the main switch is, you know, that's okay for working downstream, working in on the isolate, on the installation. If you're working on the switchboard, you know, you need to isolate upstream of that.

Keith: Absolutely. Have you ever received an electric shock before this?

Luke: No. No.

Keith: There's quite a few electrical workers out there who received a shock, and we know your first shock could be your last. What do you say to those people out there who, ‘She'll be right, a shock is a shock.’ What do you say?

Luke: No. No. Every job's different. Follow your safety procedures, your risk assessments. You know, it's not just a tick and flick. It's a reminder for yourself. It's identifying those hazards and then putting your controls in place to make sure you actually do put those controls in place.

Keith: There's a reason for it.

Luke: There's a reason for it. It's not just a piece of paper. The piece of paper helps trigger your thought process on controlling the hazards that, you know, keep yourself safe to go home, to go home to your family each afternoon.

Keith: Yep. So it's been a few months since the event. What's it like now waking up in the morning and getting in the car and going to work?

Luke: It's lingering. It's in your mind. You know, some days are easier than others because you know what's ahead of you that day.

Keith: You can relate to that experience… on what not to do, but more so what to do. Luke, it's a privilege having a chat to you. It's not often do we have workers who receive a shock, then have CPR performed on them, get to meet them and talk to them. There's quite a few electrical workers, their first shock was their last shock, and not here today. So it's a privilege having you here today talk and share your experience. For the 67,000 licensed workers out there and the many thousand will come in our trade, telling your story here today and express the risk of working on energised equipment and how lucky you are, it's a privilege for you being here. So thanks very much, mate.

Luke: Thank you.