Man electrocuted on outdoor five-a-side pitch

CASE SUMMARY

Albert Xhediku, a 34-year-old taxi driver, was electrocuted after climbing over a fence to retrieve a football at the Mountbatten Leisure Centre in Portsmouth. On Sunday, 17 January 2016, Albert attended Mountbatten Leisure Centre to play five-a-side with friends on an outdoor astroturf pitch at the centre. 

At around 18:30, when the ball was kicked over the fence, Albert proceeded to climb over a fence to retrieve the ball. He collected the ball, but before he could reclimb the fence, he touched a floodlight lamppost and received a fatal shock. Despite the best efforts of friends and centre staff, Albert died from his injuries. 

The inquest into Albert's death heard evidence that the floodlight had not been inspected as frequently as it should have been before the incident. The site, which was run by management contractor Parkwood Community Leisure on behalf of Portsmouth City Council, told the inquest that repairs had since been carried out to the floodlight.

An off-duty police officer, Simon Tam, also told the inquest that he had received a nasty electric shock from the floodlight on 1 December 2015. He told the leisure centre and was told it would be logged. 

A spokesman for Parkwood Community Leisure said (Guardian, 2019):

“We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Albert Xhediku’s family and friends at this extremely difficult time. As a company we have always taken health and safety extremely seriously and we are fully committed to delivering high standards and a quality public service at all our centres.

Since the incident, we have worked with the relevant authorities to establish what happened and prevent the recurrence of a similar incident in the future.”

 

References

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Citation. Jacklin, D. 2023. Man electrocuted on outdoor five-a-side pitch. Water Incident Research Hub, 29 January.