An electrical incident is an event resulting from either personnel action or equipment failure involving electrical installations that has the potential to result in an injury due to:
1) Electrical flash and/or burn,
2) Electric shock from a source greater than 50Vac or 100Vdc,
or
3) Reflex action to an electric shock
Real electric shock may cause anything from a light tingle to a prolonged illness, to sudden death. But it may also merely startle the victim who then loses his balance and is injured by a fall. In accidents not involving a shock, electricity may, or may not, be the cause of a fire. An accident involving electricity may be due to an illegal installation or to an unsafe use or to an improper act by the victim.
An accident may be due to a superficially correct but negligent installation.
Classification of electrical Accidents
In general electrical accidents may be classified as Fatal and non-fatal to human beings, fatal to animals and fire accidents. Both fatal and non-fatal electric accidents involve departmental as well as non-departmental persons. As a pre-requisite the department of electrical inspectorate investigates and reports the possible causes for occurrence of Electrical accidents.