30.01.15
Workman saved from electrocution by being hit with plank of wood
A workman on a Network Rail construction site was saved from electrocution when his colleague hit him with a plank of wood.
Mark Bradley, 50, was struck by a reported 11,000-volt shock on Monday, when a metal lamppost he was installing hit overhead power lines on a site in Basingstoke, where BAM Construction are building a £30m three-storey ROC (rail operating centre) for Network Rail, which will control signalling for Wessex.
The Mirror reports that his colleague, Ade Savage, tried to free him by pulling and punching him but suffered shocks himself.
Savage then grabbed a plank of wood, an insulator of electricity, and hit Bradley with it until he broke free.
Bradley was taken to hospital with burns to his face and arms and blood coming out of his ears. He is to be transferred to a specialist burns unit in Swansea. Savage was also treated for burns.
BAM Construction said: "We can confirm there was an accident on our Basingstoke site late on Monday afternoon, where we are working for Network Rail.
"We deeply regret that this has happened, and our thoughts are with those affected.”
A Network Rail spokesman told the Basingstoke Gazette: “A contractor working on Network Rail’s new control centre in Basingstoke was injured yesterday afternoon while working on the site, managed by BAM Construction.
“An investigation will be carried out and the Health and Safety Executive has been informed. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
(Picture credit: Basingstoke Gazette)
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