Cafe death prompts push for mandatory safety switches across Tasmanian workplaces
A coroner is pushing for all Tasmanian workplaces to be fitted with safety cut-off switches after a café worker was electrocuted at a café Pyengana.
Facilities supervisor Guy Redman Clark died from electrocution at the Holy Cow Café when he touched a live terminal inside a dishwasher in October 2015. Clark was working with a colleague to remove a coffee machine from the premises to have it serviced when they dislodged a water pipe to the dishwasher.
Clarke suffered a seizure and fatal cardiac arrest after accidently touching a live terminal inside the machine while he was trying to reconnect the wash pipe. He was exposed to a shock greater than 240 volts.
A later inspection of the dishwasher found the water pipe had been incorrectly installed so it leaked water into the machine’s electrical motor.
“The unequivocal evidence is that RCDs save lives – and one may have saved Mr Clark’s life,” Coroner Simon Cooper said. “In my respectful view, it is time for their installation to be mandated, and not just prospectively.
“Accordingly, I recommend that the appropriate authorities commence the necessary steps to ensure the installation of RCDs in all workplaces, regardless of when the workplace was constructed.”
Sheridan Randall, 22nd January 2020
