The new year began on a sour note for the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco), after four electrocution deaths were reported in the space of a week in the city.
The fatal accidents involving two wiremen in Sowcarpet and two persons in Choolaimedu and Tambaram have left senior officials in the electricity department worried. The two wiremen — R. Vincent, 43, and R. Udhaya Kumar, 40 — attached to the Sowcarpet East section office,were electrocuted when they were attempting to restore power supply to Audiappa Naicken Street, on January 1. Three days after this accident, Lima Rose, a resident of Choolaimedu, was killed when a pillar box burst due to a short-circuit in the underground cable on January 4. Senthil Kumar, a resident of Tambaram, was allegedly electrocuted when he stepped on a live wire near Selaiyur on January 3. However, local officials claimed it was not a case of electrocution.
Similar incidents have taken place in the past too. Sethu, a resident of Chitlapakkam, was electrocuted outside his house after an electricity pole collapsed on September 16 last year and a couple, Karunakaran and Sudha, were electrocuted in Velachery on November 22, 2015.
Taken by surprise
Power managers are surprised by the accidents which occurred within a week of issuing circulars to all officials, including superintending engineers, executive engineers and assistant executive engineers, to ensure an accident-free New Year. A senior official of Tangedco, sharing data of fatal accidents involving public and department officials for three years, said 114 persons were killed in 2019-20 against 108 fatalities for 2018-19. In 2017-18, the total deaths was 147.
Another Tangedco official said that a circular pertaining to preventive maintenance instructions was issued on December 24 last year listing out the various precautions to be taken, including covering of exposed underground cables, replacement of weak joints, installing new poles and tightening of sagging overhead power cables, to avoid accidents. The senior officials were given clear instructions to conduct regular safety awareness classes for maintenance staff to avoid loss of life among the staff and public, he added.
While in the case of the deaths of two wiremen human error has been cited, the local officials in Choolaimedu are yet to find answers for the bursting of the pillar box which resulted in the death of Lima Rose.
The official said that as per the preliminary report, the two wiremen were killed after they reportedly failed to fix earth rods in the two supply points of the transformer and wrongly closed a high tension supply network. The report has also identified lapses on the part of the supervisory staff to ensure mandatory safety measures were followed, he added.
‘Follow-up lacking’
S. Manoharan, retired safety officer of Tangedco, citing an average of three electrical fatalities involving both the public and workers per day in the State, faulted senior officials for not taking proper follow-up action to avert accidents. He said at a time when the distribution system had become quite complicated, with double- and triple-feeding from one single junction, the maintenance staff needed to be extra careful while taking up fault rectification.
Mr. Manoharan said during his tenure as a safety officer, a study was conducted based on 500 fatal electrical accidents and in the report submitted it was suggested that multiple distribution networks be marked with red paint for maintenance staff to easily identify and take extra care in such cases. He suggested that a special safety wing like the enforcement wing be created. Accidents needed to be properly analysed by senior officials of the rank of superintending engineers to find out what exactly happened and not become an exercise to apportion blame.
M. Somasundaram, officer-bearer of the Consumer Association of India, said officials of Tangedco needed to focus more on safety measures by closing exposed cables and pasting ‘danger’ stickers on transformers, junction boxes and pillar boxes, to prevent the public from standing near them. The consumer activist said that Tangedco's complaint no. 9445850829 needed to be publicised widely.
