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I see in our local news where the electrician that connected power to a fair ride without proper grounding, which killed a small boy was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 200 hrs community service, 2 yrs probation, and must pay 55k restituion to the family of the boy.
I know I am amazed at what I see at street fairs and carnivals. I used to volunteer on hook up day at a street fair but I quit after I saw the leader replace 3,480V, 400A fuses with copper pipe so he could tell which stand was blowing the fuse. WOW! Maybe this sentence of this sparky will get some attention of the people who set up these events!

The News story can be found HERE

bfdpoc221 I haven't said it yet, but welcome to the forum.

Another sad part of this story is infarct this sentence, but for a different reason in my view. The truly guilty people have not even been charged.

This is an elderly man that didn't want to sit down and spend his latter years waiting to expire. He took on this job not knowing how to do it, but the bottom line is he was not the criminal.

If an apprentice electrician wired a building with blatant mistakes (he would think he was doing things right) and were allowed to do it, the laws and those who wrote these laws (or didn't) that allowed him to do it would be the criminal parties.

The governing authority has killed a young child, probably killed this elderly gentleman, ruined the lifes of the families of the child and the elderly gentleman, and affected us here as well as everyone that is familiar with this incident.

I think the Ohio Governor should shoulder this guilt.

Sorry to be so passionate on this issue,

Roger

[This message has been edited by Roger (edited 07-09-2004).]

I agree with Roger. I have always felt that the people in charge were the ones responsible because there was no one to inspect the work or ensure that this guy was qualified. It's easy to pick on the little guy and for sure the politicians weren't going to take the fall. They made him into a scape goat to make everyone think they got their pound of flesh. It's just a shame that a jury couldn't see through this.

-Hal

Hell that sucks ...poor kid.


What happened to the "inspectors"? And what, pray, is the link between the fairground and farming??

UK,in a lot of States (mine included)traveling carnivals and such are under the jurisdiction of the Dept, of Agriculture.

Russell

I also agree with Roger, and like Roger, I am pissed off that this has occurred and other things like this occur. It is about time that the proper people stand up and do something!!!
Where were the inspectors? Who was in charge of the fair? How many people have to die for this nonsense to stop? I will say that as long as money passes hands this will not stop!!

I wrote about something similar to this in Mike Holt's website earlier this morning at the Grounding thread.
I know that I am idealistic, but I don't care. This industry as a whole has some fantastic people, but the small percentage of bad apples is hard to look past. As much as some people don't agree with the process Joe Tedesco may be using to try to garner his cause, I give him a tremendous hand for his efforts. This crap has got to stop.
I only hope that this man is not the only one to be prosecuted for this incident.

Pierre

It seems like the term “electrician” in any form to describe such a grossly irresponsible guy is itself taking some criminally wild liberties with news reporting.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 07-11-2004).]