What the eye's can't see?

[ipf]

Heard one on Wednesday....from someone involved.
An 85 years old almost totally BLIND lady, whilst not requesting it, had a Test and Inspection carried out by someone representing the housing association who own her property.
Later she entered her bathroom and attempted to switch on the shower, only to receive a quite nasty electric shock. Luckily, she wasn't badly injured and recovered quickly.
She called her daughter, who arrived shortly afterwards. Her daughter found the shower control unit open, the lid separated in the room. She took photos and got onto the association.
The situation is ongoing.
As far as I'm concerned, things are getting beyond belief.
By the way, the lady expressed concern that the bloke responsible might loose his job......old school, thinking of others, eh!

 

[SparkyAndGeorge]

Good reason to leave phone on silent or in van during such works when high concentration is required.

 

[ipf]

Good reason to leave phone on silent or in van during such works when high concentration is required.

If it takes silencing a phone...….or HIGH concentration to be able to perform such acts of basic common sense, we are already at the base of the spiral.

 

[freddo]

Good reason to leave phone on silent or in van during such works when high concentration is required.

The boss moans and complains if we don't answer our phones!

 

[Intoelectrics]

The lid can just as easily be left off after dead testing as after live testing.

A lot of people on here seem to be just perfect, we are all human and we all make mistakes, I recently left a job and woke in the middle of the night wondering if the dis board cover had been reinstated after testing, I went back in to London very very early to check and happily it was but it could easily have not been. Its a nasty situation but as I said, we all make mistakes

No one is perfect! You thought you had made a mistake and it played on your mind so much that you had the good sense to go back and check. We have all been there to a certain degree.
But in this scenario I can't help thinking (possibly wrongly) that the lid was left off cause the spark or mate forgot because they weren't thorough enough to just have a quick check round in each room before they left. I do this by habit even if its just to make sure I have left anything behind like tools etc.. It takes minutes in a domestic property to do this!

Imagine going to have some tyres fitted to your car, you are waiting patiently while the person removes all the wheels, returns them to the car with new tyres, then sends you on your way. Only during the wheel tightening the person doing it gets distracted and forgets to properly tighten one wheel. You are sent on your way, jump on the motorway safe in the knowledge that you have 4 spanking new tyres, happy days. You get up to 70 mph (wink wink) and the un-tightened wheel comes off, you lose control crash and people die as a result.

We all make mistakes, but some are inexcusable in my eyes, sorry but this is my opinion and I feel strongly about it. I have been witness to a fatal accident because someone "just made a mistake" well yeah and cause they were irresponsible someone tragically lost their life. A loss that could and should have been avoided if the person responsible had " just done" their job properly.

 

[HandsOffEngineer]

But in this scenario I can't help thinking (possibly wrongly) that the lid was left off cause the spark or mate forgot because they weren't thorough enough to just have a quick check round in each room before they left. I do this by habit even if its just to make sure I have left anything behind like tools etc.. It takes minutes in a domestic property to do this!

That for me is the main takeaway lesson. You should always re-check the rooms you have worked in and anything you have worked on before leaving a job (or part of a job). Personally I have found in the past that, when I am a new to a particular task, a proforma check list that you complete for every job helps to serve as a reminder, and as the different checks/re-checks become part of my routine, I can sometimes drop the formal 'checkbox' approach because the precautions become part of my cultural habits.

Source URL: What the eye's can't see? - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/what-the-eyes-cant-see.180056/
Imagine going to have some tyres fitted to your car, you are waiting patiently while the person removes all the wheels, returns them to the car with new tyres, then sends you on your way. Only during the wheel tightening the person doing it gets distracted and forgets to properly tighten one wheel. You are sent on your way, jump on the motorway safe in the knowledge that you have 4 spanking new tyres, happy days. You get up to 70 mph (wink wink) and the un-tightened wheel comes off, you lose control crash and people die as a result.

I know of just such an incident, in which wheels were not tightened on a pick-up. This was a reliable/reputable garage. After about 40 miles, one of them came off at speed and impacted the side of a car about 50 yards away. Fortunately no injuries, but it demonstrates that basic mistakes are made even by experienced people.

The key for me [I speak here as a student] is to be always alert about people and situations and minimise assumptions. Never assume competence in others. Always check things. Don't become complacent about your own competence - keep learning and improving. Check and double-check everything.

 

[naylorpd]

...forgets to properly tighten one wheel. You are sent on your way, ... the un-tightened wheel comes off

Happened to me, many years ago. Fortunately not going very fast and we stopped before the wheel came off.

To me, if you know that the customer is disabled then the standard of care that you owe that customer becomes much higher.