Hazard Identification and Barrier Implementation: Corrective Action for a Serious Electrical Contact Incident

In 2014, a BC Hydro electrician made inadvertent hand contact with a 12-kV bus while working on a station disconnect switch installation. The electrician lived but ended up losing both arms below the elbows. This article provides an overview of the incident, the two-and-a-half-month investigation, and the corrective action of implementing improved hazard identification and effective barriers as a part of job planning. It briefly introduces the Tripod Beta methodology of incident analysis, which focuses on barriers that could have been implemented to prevent or mitigate the outcome. The article will also reveal how human factors contributed to the incident as well as how a very detailed and thorough tailboard discussion focused on generic hazard categories rather than specific hazard sources. The corrective-action implementation included introducing a barrier-effectiveness tool called the hazard barrier reference (HBR) that crews now use as a part of their tailboard process. If crews cannot implement at least one effective barrier from the HBR sheet, that triggers a hazard barrier deficiency process that logs the work situation in a registry. The Hazard Barrier Governance Committee was formed to address these deficiencies and look for barrier improvements.