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$600k Fine Over Data Center Death (datacenterdynamics.com)
judgecorp writes: UK contractors Balfour Beatty and Norland have been fined £380,000 ($580k) after an electrician was electrocuted while working on a data center owned by finance firm Morgan Stanley. The fine follows mounting concern that safety is being compromised because of the need for data centers to remain online non-stop. This leads to pressure for contractors to work on live power supplies.
In working in data centers, I can totally see how this happened. Reading the actual source article, it reads like they had already connected the first circuit, and he got popped while working on the second. I would assume they had shut off both, installed the first PSU, then probably someone turned them BOTH back on instead of just the first one. When he went to connect the second PSU...
These are the kinds of accidents proper "change control" is supposed to stop, it seems no one working there really knew the over-all implementation plan. At our local data center, we have actual licensed electricians for high DC stuff, they know to "never trust always test". Even though we contract all that out too, we try to make sure the people on the site are aware of these things via bright stickers, lock-outs, etc. I have no idea if they have required licensing and training for their "cable jointer" positions in the UK.