The Electricity Supply Board has been convicted of breaches of health and safety legislation after an electrician lost an arm in Co Waterford accident.
The company was fined £5,000. It was the ESB’s third conviction over the last six weeks.
The accident happened on November 25th, 2000, when ESB employees were attempting to move a pole in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. An electrician’s arm became tangled in the grabbing device of the machine used for lifting poles. His left arm had to be amputated from the elbow due to injuries he received.
The ESB pleaded guilty at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court to an offence under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989 which requires every employer to provide safe systems of work for its employees.
In October the ESB was convicted on three charges and fined a total of £2500 following the death of one of their employees while working on an overhead line in Tallaght.
Last month Nenagh District Court convicted the ESB of a breach of safety laws after an elderly woman was badly burned by a fallen cable on a Tipperary farm in December 2000.