Man loses piece of toe to smart meter electric shock
NOORDHANG – A resident was allegedly heavily shocked after a smart box was installed incorrectly at his house.
Shocked twice after the installation of a smart electricity meter box at his house, Noordhang resident, Ian Nicholson (55), said he is lucky to be alive.
A piece of Nicholson’s toe allegedly blew off during the first electric shock and now he is in “excruciating pain” and intends to sue City Power.
He said, one morning, he tested the water with his left hand and foot before taking a shower and “it felt like a giant holding and shaking me”.
“There was nothing I could do. I don’t know if I was shocked for five, 10 or 30 seconds, only that I was in excruciating pain,” explained Nicholson.
He claimed that a piece of his fourth toe blew off and he collapsed on the floor outside the shower and was immobile for a while.
Experiencing pain in his back, neck, leg and foot, he went to his doctor who told him he was lucky to be alive.
Nicholson then called his electrician who could not find what was wrong. Following another less-severe electric shock in his bath that night, the electrician identified the problem. Apparently, two wires were switched, which caused appliances in the house to be live.
Nicholson tried to get a hold of City Power for an hour, but when none of his calls were answered, he asked his electrician to solve the problem.
“The live and neutral cables were switched,” explained the electrician, who did not wish to be named because he did not have authority to fix a City Power-owned meter, and may still face repercussions for doing so.
“This made the earth cable running into the house live. I measured 200 volts on his taps and his appliances would also have been live.”
The electrician said that it was “probably an honest mistake” because workers had many meters to install and were probably in a hurry. Nicholson claimed to be shocked with 60 Amperes, 300 times more than the amount enough to kill a person. “The mistake was simple but it involves people’s lives,” he said. “If it had been a child or a person with heart problems they would have died.”
The fact that, the electrician fixed the wiring in the meter, Ward 115 councillor Chris Santana does not think City Power will take responsibility for the incident.
“I understand the issue and have asked City Power to comment, but residents must follow protocol,” cautioned Santana.
“If City Power does not answer the phone, they must contact me. By asking his electrician to fix the meter, City Power will not take any responsibility.”
Questions were emailed to City Power spokesperson Sol Masolo, and the Randburg Sun will report on this story as it develops.
Details: City Power 011 375 5555, Ward 115 councillor Chris Santana 082 416 7714 or csantana@global.co.za
I understand if city power doesn’t take responsibility if the incident happens *after* an unauthorised electrician works on the cables but this incident happened before and makes city power 100% liable. Hiding behind a flawed ‘policy’ does not reduce the culpability.
A very interesting situation Colin but I think Santana is correct that City Power are not liable.
The only proof Nicholson had that the problem was there before his electrician fixed it was photographs, which City Power can say are of any electrical appliance.
Do you know of similar incidents Colin? Would be interesting to find out if they are happening in a specific-area etc
What I can’t understand on this is that the neutral and earth connections are supposed to be bonded BEFORE they enter the meter, so if they had swopped the cables in that case is should have not had any effect on the earth going in to the house distribution board. The live and neutral would have been reversed, so breakers and switches would not cut off the live to the relevant appliance or light fitting, but in essence all would appear to operate as normal.
I suspect there is something else wrong with the wiring as well, which since showed up after this incorrect installation.
Personally I still think we use use the TT earthing system where earth and neutral are not bonded together (we use the TN-C-S system).