Courts

ESB worker sues in High Court over fall from electricity pole

Lineman claims hoop securing wire to pole was incorrectly installed and caused line to come loose and make him fall to the ground

PJ Davis (64), of Kilkerrin, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, claims the ESB failed to provide safe and proper equipment when he was required to work on replacing old uncovered electricity wires with new covered wires at Agahcordrinan, Co Longford, on July 5th, 2016.
PJ Davis (64), of Kilkerrin, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, claims the ESB failed to provide safe and proper equipment when he was required to work on replacing old uncovered electricity wires with new covered wires at Agahcordrinan, Co Longford, on July 5th, 2016.
Tue Nov 12 2024 - 19:36

An ESB worker who fell off an electricity pole has sued in the High Court claiming he was required to work with an incorrectly installed attachment.

PJ Davis (64), of Kilkerrin, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, claims the ESB failed to provide safe and proper equipment when he was required to work on replacing old uncovered electricity wires with new covered wires at Agahcordrinan, Co Longford, on July 5th, 2016.

The court heard that Mr Davis was a trained lineman who climbed thousands of poles using ropes and harness since he joined the ESB at the age of 17.

He told the court that on the day of the accident he had climbed to the top of a pole and was going down again and negotiating his way around a transformer box attached to the pole.

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He had to change a harness he used in the climb when a wire attached to the pole came loose, hit him in the groin and caused him to fall to the ground, he said. He fell some seven metres, it was alleged.

It was claimed that a hoop securing the wire to the pole was incorrectly installed.

The ESB denies the claim and says the cause of the accident was the failure of Mr Davis to secure himself with an auxiliary rope used to climb the pole before detaching the main rope.

Mr Davis told his barrister David McGrath SC that as he was negotiating his way around the transformer on the pole, his auxiliary rope became snagged on the transformer box.

His hip was raised and he could not get back up or down so he put his arm around the pole to change from his main rope to the auxiliary rope when the wire on the pole fell and hit him.

The court heard he shattered his hip and spent several weeks in hospital and did not return to work until the following March.

He claimed that, in April 2017, he learned there had been a notice issued before the accident of a recall in relation to a device keeping the wire on the pole.

Under cross-examination, Noel McCarthy SC, for the ESB, put it to Mr Davis that it was part of his job to ensure the equipment he was dealing with was safe and if there was no pin keeping the wire to the pole, he should have noticed it either from ground level or when he got to the top of the pole.

Mr Davis said he did not notice there was no pin.

Counsel also put it to him that he knew from basic training that he should not disconnect himself completely from the pole at anytime.

“So you took a chance and you fell,” counsel said. “I did not fall, I was thrown,” he replied.

The court heard the ESB conducted its own internal inquiry into the accident. A report found that Mr Davis fell before the wire came down and that contact by Mr Davis may have caused it to fall.

The case continues before Mr Justice Conor Dignam.