€700k for boy who hit nail into ESB cable
Kurt O’Callaghan was playing with friends in a wood near his home and making a camp when he decided to put up a ‘Keep Out’ sign. The court yesterday heard the boy hit a cable when he hammered in the nail for his sign and was thrown back and suffered severe burn injuries.
His counsel told the court Kurt had climbed on a low boundary wall to a housing estate to access the ESB pole to nail in his sign.
Kurt, from Wexford town and now aged 17, had sued the ESB through his mother, Denise O’Callaghan, as a result of the incident not far from his home on July 3, 2008.
It was claimed the boy had been exposed to a danger to which the ESB knew or ought to have known existed and that there was an alleged failure to carry out an inspection of the wall or the electricity pole so as to detect the dangerous nature of the wall’s proximity to the nearby electricity pole and, in particular, the presence of high-velocity cables.
The claims were denied.
Kurt later had to have multiple operations and grafts to burn areas on his head, neck, shoulders, chest, and hands.
Counsel told the court there was a statutory requirement to ensure electricity poles are protected up to 3m from the ground.
An electrical engineer on the O’Callaghan side was critical of the fact that the ESB should have spotted that there was access to the pole if a person climbed up on the low wall.
Counsel said that when the engineer inspected the pole, he reported finding 52 other nails in it, including those which had been used to hang election posters.
Senior counsel Michael Counihan said Kurt
struck a cable and was blown off the pole with the force of the shock and suffered severe burn injuries.
A passing motorist rushed him to hospital and he was transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin, where he spent the next three months. Mr Counihan said Kurt will possibly need another operation but he has made an amazing recovery and is now waiting to take up a welding apprenticeship.
Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the boy had had an awful time and it was extremely traumatic for him. He said it was a good settlement and the boy could have faced a possible claim of contributory negligence if the case had gone ahead.
