Burned worker sues over Wal-Mart accident - 10/11
October 11, 2006
A worker who was critically burned in an electrical fire at the new Bloomington, Ind., Wal-Mart Supercenter in August has filed a lawsuit alleging Wal-Mart and two other companies did not provide proper safety, according to the Associated Press.
A lawyer said he is preparing a similar suit on behalf of another contractor who was critically injured in the Aug. 26 fire.
The men were employees of Electromation Inc., of Muncie, Ind., and were burned when electrical panels they were working on became charged with up to 12,000 volts of electricity and shorted. The suit filed Friday on behalf of Stephen Abbott, 27, of Otterbein said that the contractors previously worked on electrical units only when the power was off.
The suit in Monroe Circuit Court named Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the LaSalle Group Inc., and Duke Energy as defendants and asked for a jury trial to determine unspecified damages.
(submitted by Tony Moscioni)
If they worked on it before deengerigzed why was it energized this time? POCO not notified or did something go wrong? I would think that the POCO would shunt everything to ground before work began while working on such high voltage. Did something get overlooked. Everytime i hear of these things i shiver. Tagout procedures and lockout to be followed and double checked. My heart goes out to the familys of the people that were hurt.
I must be missing something here. were these guys working for Wal-Mart or a contractor? Maybe because all electrical workers here must be fully qualified I am thinking that maybe they were doing something stupid for which they should have known better and are now seeking deep pockets to cover the cost of their mistake. If my assesment is accurate I hope they don't collect a penny. I rue all of these injury stories but personal responsibility has to take effect at some point.
Steve:
I think this media source has misquoted the incident's voltage level, again. There was someone on another site who knows the people involved and he clarified that the voltage was on the secondary side of the POCO transformer. It was a 480/277 service. I'll try to find the site again and edit in the link...
It's in
THIS THREAD [This message has been edited by mxslick (edited 10-13-2006).]
after reading the thread im still not sure of the whole incident. It seems to have been a phase to phase short. Done by pliers or the puller causeing it. I and especially my boss we do not cut corners for no one. He has seen too much and realizes the danger is too great. I showed him the thread and he said they should not have been pulling wires into a hot vault or power distribution panel. The power should have been killed before the pull. Once again my heart goes out to the men and their familys. Someone needs to look closeley as to the hows and whys of this accident.
[This message has been edited by steve ancient apprentice (edited 10-15-2006).]
CONTEMPT
That is, I am beginning to think, the cause of so many accidents- as well as several other problems in our industry.
Guys, we are NOT semi-skilled apes with tool pouches! We are PROFESSIONALS. This means WE are the boss- or we walk.
So many folks assume an attitude of superiority toward the 'lowly tradesman.' Heaven forbid they be inconvenienced by our ladder in a doorway (twice I've had folks try to move it, with me on it, rather than walk around), or our shutting off the power.
I don't care what the "manager" says, etc. If I need the power off, it gets shut off. Or I walk.
Sure, there are times I will take risks... part of being a 'pro' is knowing when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em.
Many, many times the same parties complaining about how you just can't inconvenience THEM are also the ones who created the situation in the first place- by being CHEAP. Putting everything on one circuit, not having a local switch or disconnect, not having sub-panels, etc. Or, by having incompetent handymen bollux things up so bad that nothing makes sense anymore.
I wonder if this was also one of those places that locked folks inside- then took the keys home?
All I can say is: keep a good set of wheels on your job box- so you can roll it out at a moments' notice.
[This message has been edited by renosteinke (edited 10-15-2006).]