The High Court has awarded an ESB network technician €80,000 in general damages and €3,107.30 in agreed special damages after finding that a live-cable incident caused him post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The technician was directed to use an Ariadne cable-identification machine while working on a public light on Highfield Road, Rathgar, in December 2014. He had not been trained to use it. The machine gave readings he could not interpret, and he began stripping a cable by hand. He realised it was a live medium-voltage cable and left the excavation before using test probes that could have exposed him to the risk of electrocution.
The ESB admitted negligence in 2018, accepting that the equipment was unsafe and unsuitable and that the technician had not been trained to use it. It continued to dispute whether his psychiatric injuries were caused by the incident, were reasonably foreseeable, and were legally recoverable. The Ariadne equipment was later withdrawn from use.
The court heard conflicting psychiatric evidence. The technician’s treating psychiatrist, Dr Brian Fitzmaurice, diagnosed PTSD and depression, which he said followed the incident. A psychiatrist called by the ESB considered that the technician did not meet the criteria for PTSD, though she accepted he had depression. The judge preferred Dr Fitzmaurice’s analysis, noting that he had treated the technician and that the other psychiatrist had assessed him once and lacked important details about the incident, including that he had handled the live cable.
The judge found that the technician had suffered shock and apprehended serious injury or death. She concluded that his PTSD and depression were induced by the shock of exposure to the cable, and that the psychiatric injury was reasonably foreseeable in the circumstances. The court held that he met the requirements for recovery under the principles in Kelly v. Hennessy.
The judgment records that his symptoms had improved but that he continued to suffer psychiatric injury. The court awarded €80,000 in general damages, with special damages of €3,107.30 agreed between the parties. The judgment does not specify a separate order for costs.