A teenager´s claim for injuries in an electrocution accident has been resolved in the High Court with the approval of a €700,000 compensation settlement.
Kurt O´Callaghan from Wexford City was just ten years old when, on July 3rd 2008, he and his friends were playing in woods near their homes. The friends had made a camp in the woods and Kurt wrote a “Keep Out” sign to be hung on a nearby electricity pole. However, when Kurt climbed the wall of a nearby housing estate to reach the pole, and started nail the sign to it, he nailed into a high-voltage electric cable and was blown off of the wall with the force of the electric shock.
A passing motorist saw the accident and took Kurt to hospital. The young boy was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, where he remained for the next three months, undergoing surgery and receiving treatment for severe burns to his shoulders, head, neck, hands, and chest. It is likely that Kurt will need further surgery and skin grafts in the future.
On behalf of her son, Denise O´Callaghan made a claim for injuries in an electrocution accident against the Electricity Service Board (ESB). In the legal action it was alleged that the ESB knew – or should have known – that the ease of access to the electricity pole represented a risk of injury, and that there had been a failure by the ESB to assess the wall that Kurt had climbed to pin his notice on the pole as a risk despite its proximity to the electricity cables.
The claim for injuries in an electrocution accident was supported by a report compiled by an expert electrical engineer. The report criticised the ESB for not identifying the risk of danger and, as well as finding that the ESB had failed in its statutory requirement to ensure that electricity poles were inaccessible to a height of three metres, the expert found 52 other nails that had been used to hang posters from the electricity pole in the past – implying that the ESB´s alleged failure in its duty of care had been ongoing.
Liability for Kurt´s injuries was denied by the ESB, and the claim for injuries in an electrocution accident was scheduled for a full court hearing. Prior to the hearing, however, the parties reached agreement on a settlement of the claim for €700,000. As the claim had been made on behalf of a legal minor, the approval hearing was heard by Mr Justice Kevin Cross, who said that the settlement of the claim was a good one in the circumstances as – if Kurt´s claim for injuries in an electrocution accident had gone to a full hearing – Kurt may have had to overcome the issue of contributory negligence.