Investigate an apprentice electric shock from a shared neutral

What is going on

On 4 September a third year apprentice received an electric shock from a live neutral while disconnecting a socket outlet circuit in the office at Fairmont Engineering Works, recorded as INC-2026-031. The circuit breaker for the socket circuit had been switched off, but the neutral was shared with a lighting circuit that remained energised. The supervising electrician was on site but in the factory area. The apprentice was assessed at hospital and released, the regulator was notified the same day, and the apprentice is on light duties. The job safety analysis for the job lists the isolation point as 'socket breaker' and the test for dead section is blank.

Your brief

Conduct the investigation in line with the incident reporting requirements and the safe isolation procedure: gather the records, interview the people involved, establish the sequence of events and the root causes including supervision and isolation practice, propose corrective actions, and update the incident register and a draft report for the manager and the regulator.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the incident, electric shock and hazard report form, the safe isolation procedure and the apprentice supervision policy, and review INC-2026-031 in the incident register.
• Collect the job safety analysis and isolation record for the job, the job board entry and the instrument register entry for the tester on the van.
• Prepare interview questions and record interviews with the apprentice and the supervising electrician, covering the isolation performed, the test for dead, the supervision arrangement and the site conditions.
• Establish the sequence of events and identify why the shared neutral remained live, whether a test for dead was performed on the neutral, and whether the supervision level met the policy for a third year apprentice.
• Analyse the contributing factors and root causes across procedure, training, supervision, site drawings and time pressure, using a structured method such as the five whys.
• Propose corrective and preventive actions with owners and dates, for example changes to the job safety analysis form, isolation practice for circuits with shared neutrals, and supervision checks.
• Update INC-2026-031 with the findings and actions and set the status to Actions open, and draft the report for the manager and for the regulator's follow-up.
• Prepare a toolbox talk on shared neutrals and test for dead for all sites.

What someone in this role would produce

• Investigation report with sequence of events, contributing factors and root causes
• Interview records for the apprentice and the supervisor
• Updated incident register entry with corrective actions, owners and due dates
• Toolbox talk material on shared neutrals and test for dead