Atlanta Man Electrocuted: Serious Injury and Wrongful Death

We read in the newspaper this week about the death of a maintenance man at a local school system when he was electrocuted while trying to change a fixture at the elementary school. While the newspaper article did not provide many details, it was curious to us that a maintenance man would be killed while simply trying to change out a light fixture. This raises the obvious issue of whether there is third party negligence because the electrical system obviously had some problems within it, presumably hidden from the worker. In any event, this sad and tragic case is reminiscent of other cases we have handled in the past involving electrocutions.
Over the years, we have handled wrongful death and other serious injury cases arising from electrocutions. In the cases we have handled, the person being electrocuted is almost always a worker who is performing some task. Typically, the worker is unaware of the danger to himself while performing the work. If the worker survives, electrocution injuries can be very serious and have long term consequences. Typically, anyone electrocuted while on the job unfortunately dies because electrocution almost by definition is usually a fatal event.
While the facts have not yet been reported as to the reasons behind this death, in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring, it is necessary that both OSHA and state officials conduct a thorough investigation of the underlying facts. There is no doubt but there was a root cause of this tragedy which must be determined so that lessons can be learned and future similar cases avoided.