33-year-old Ryde man Glen Pelmear was electrocuted when sitting on a stainless steel public toilet on 8th July 1995.
A live wire had been left dangling from the ceiling making the entire cubicle – seat, bowl and fittings – ‘live’. When Pelmear attempted to use the toilet, a 240-volt shock ripped through his body, and he died in a shower of sparks.
Mr Pelmear had been discovered by a Police Officer at 11:00 that morning. PC John Connelly himself received an electric shock when attempting to remove the body from the cubicle. Prior to the arrival of the Police Officer, 1 of the 2 teenage boys who had raised the alarm had also been electrocuted.
Initially, the cause of the cable that had come loose from a light fitting was blamed on vandalism. However, it was later discovered that the responsibility for the tragedy lay with a council worker tasked with repairs, who was not a qualified electrician.
After the fatality, Isle of Wight Council launched a probe into the safety of all its 104 toilets, including the 13 all steel ones.
The following year, an inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death aggravated by lack of care.
In 1997, Isle of Wight Council was fined £18,000 and ordered to pay £6,700 in costs after admitting it had exposed the public to risk by not maintaining electrical installations at Eastern Esplanade.
Very shocking news
I remember reading this article, seems like only
yesterday.
30 years as flown by so fast.
Yet they still use stainless steel toilets, very
concerning.
Initially, the cause of the cable that had come loose from a light fitting was blamed on vandalism. However, it was later discovered that the responsibility for the tragedy lay with a council worker tasked with repairs, who was not a qualified electrician.
In my view the loose wire in a light fitting and its subsequent repair by an unqualified worker, although responsible for a very sad death, indicates that there must have been a fundamental flaw in the set up (possibly from the time of installation) Metal fixtures – be they a toilet bowl, urinal, taps, pipework etc and the cubicle structures in such set-ups, regardless of whether they have any other electrical connections to them – should all be securely & independently bonded to the buildings electrical earth (a regulation requirement which I’m reasonably certain would have been in place even 30 years ago); A loose live wire coming into contact with any metal item bonded in this manner would trip/fuse the circuit removing the shock hazard and preventing the circuits from working, unless the earth bonding connection(s) were either not present or had been removed.
I wonder if he grabbed the wire. Maybe RCD was not mandatory then.
I got one better than that,I had a fairly new house quite a few years back which had all the latest bonding and RCD, I came back from sailing and jumped in the shower, got a huge electrical shock off the shower pipe.
The cause was according to Southern Electric a supply cable that supplied my house and the one next door which was under the ground had somehow broken and the live was shorting to the neutral, it took them all afternoon to find the fault on a Sunday with a team of about 8 men.
In the end I was wired to the street lamp just outside for a power supply whilst the problem was solved.
So much for earth bonding, but I did live to tell the tale.
Looks like even 30 years ago DEI wokeness was in play and no one learned. Don’t hire people unqualified just because it’s cute