Health and Safety Executive: Regulations not breached in electrocution

Dad-of-three Jason Knight, 35, suffered a near-death incident on April 6, 2024, when electricity jumped two meters from a power cable to his window cleaning pole and electrocuted him.

Doctors told Jason's family that he would most likely die - as the parts of his body were dying after the electrocution. 

“We got a message saying he had an accident at work and had been badly injured," said his dad John.

“We didn’t know the severity of the accident and when I arrived at the scene we saw the air ambulance and I thought there was something wrong. 

“It was a harrowing view - Jason was on an air ambulance trolley, they were putting needles all over him and his hand and arm were black. It was like someone had taken it off a barbecue."

Dad-of-three Jason Knight was told he 'should have died' after being hit by 33,000 volts (Image: SWNS) Westbury local Jason spent four days in a coma following the incident and his dad remembers 'crying his eyes out' as he watched his son in hospital for three and a half months.

Now the Knight family are demanding a change in the law to stop this from happening to someone else.

Their campaign is for water-fed poles to be insulated to a British standard to protect other professionals from electrocution.

Jason's GoFundMe page has currently raised over £45,000 to support the campaign and his recovery.

“Jason is very lucky - he should have been dead. He's the first survivor of this type of incident," said John.

The incident changed the lives of Jason's whole family (Image: GoFundMe) "He has lost his business due to this. But because he is alive we can campaign.

"He touched an un-insulated section and earthed himself, causing the electrical current to jump.

"If the bottom section had been uninsulated it would have gone for his left arm and go directly to his heart. 

“The only way we can allow change to happen is by putting pressure on the manufacturer and tell them we want these poles to have a certified British Standard."

According to Craig Mawlam, owner of Ionic Systems, there are between four and eight electrocutions recorded from overhead power lines every year in the UK.

"Strikes are usually fatal - Jason is a rare survivor and as such he is an important voice in the fight to improve safety for all in the outdoor cleaning sector," he said.

"His terrible accident highlights a need for improvement within the standard as well as the need for the standard to be mandated for all water-fed pole suppliers.

Westbury man Jason Knight lost his business after the lifechanging incident (Image: SWNS)

"By including both the handle section and the next section of telescoping pole above the handle, the safe working distance from any unnoticed powerline is increased from 2 to 4 meters. As a pole is raised or lowered the safe distance is increased.

"My advice to all concerned window cleaners is to “look up and look out” for overhead powerlines and if in any doubt decline the work, there is no gentle tingle to warn you’re getting too close.

"Secondly put some pressure on their preferred supplier to take their safety more seriously than simply applying a warning sign and passing the sole responsibility for safety on to them."

A HSE spokesperson said: “We carried out an investigation into this incident and found regulations had not been breached.”