A mine worker caused an electrical short with a tape measure, doing what they thought was the right thing - ensuring compliance with a critical control (minimum clearance from an energised conductor). They knew a minimum distance mattered. They did not understand the hazard of measuring it that way.
What RSHQ has said
The November 2026 Coal Mines Inspectorate Incident Periodical from Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) includes a section titled "Non-electrical workers in electrical incidents". It shows evidence of a direct electrical short after a non-electrical worker used a tape measure to measure the height from an overhead conductor to a substation frame.
The periodical makes three points that matter here:
Non-electrical workers continue to be involved in serious electrical incidents at Queensland coal mines.
In several recent events, workers acting as safety observers or spotters did not fully understand the electrical hazard, or the purpose of the control they were providing.
The Coal Mines Inspectorate is reviewing the training provided to non-electrical workers during the remainder of 2026-27.
It also recommends that supervisors ensure observers understand their task and responsibilities, and that the role contributes to controlling the hazard or situation. Elsewhere, the same periodical notes that half of all electrical incidents at Queensland coal mines are caused by damage to trailing cables, and that non-electrical workers completing routine tasks are involved in many of them.
The question behind the incident
It is easy to stop at the worker. But someone sent that worker to do the job. If the supervisor who assigned the task does not have the competency and hazard awareness for it, how can they be expected to ensure the safety of the people they send?
It doesn't stop with the supervisor. It is the role of the Control Implementer (Superintendent) and the Risk Owner (Manager) above them to ensure the Management System itself does not allow this to happen.
The Inspectorate has now stated it is reviewing the training provided to non-electrical workers.
Read that as: be ready to be asked about it and when an inspector does ask, make sure you can demonstrate that you can assure the supervisors who send people to these jobs are competent for the hazards involved.
Where the Management Structure fits
This is what the Management Structure must address. The Site Senior Executive (SSE) establishes it under s.55 (Coal) or s.50 (Metals and Quarrying), and it should recognise this Material Unwanted Event (MUE).
The Risk Owner has the accountability for that part of the Safety and Health Management System (SHMS). That includes identifying the Control Implementers and Control Monitors for the MUE, and the competencies they need. It is the Risk Owner who gives the SSE assurance that the MUE is managed at an acceptable level.
How My Competency Expert deals with this MUE
Our template MUE for new clients is "Electrocution / Electric shock from non-electrical work". The rationale explains it this way: the MUE relates to the risk of electric shock from work such as cutting and welding (hot work), faulty hand tools, or digging up cables during excavation. It is not electrical work as such, but the risk of accidental contact with live conductors as a result of the work, or from the use of electrical tools.
The template suggests:
Experience: 4+ years in a working environment where exposure to electrical hazards for non-electrical workers was obtained, for the Risk Owner, with decreasing years for Control Implementers and Control Monitors.
Awareness training: either basic electrical energy sources and hazard awareness training, or an advanced electrical hazards awareness course (which also meets the MSHAC / Quarry SSE requirement).
These are a starting point, to be adjusted to your site's risk assessment and MUE threshold. My Competency Expert links each person on the Management Structure to the MUE and records their experience, training and other pathways against it, so you can see who meets the requirement and who does not.
Questions to ask before an inspector does
What competencies does your Management Structure Plan require of supervisors, superintendents and managers for this MUE?
Is everyone on the Management Structure compliant, and can you show the evidence?
Does the competency required match the hazard, including work near overhead conductors and substations?
Does the Risk Owner know who is sending people to work near electrical hazards?
Supporting evidence
The answers should be documented and recorded as part of your Management Structure, ready for your Risk Owner, your SSE or an inspector.
If you would like to discuss how My Competency Expert deals with this MUE, and our standard electrical awareness and on-the-job work experience suggestions, reach out to us.
Source: Resources Safety and Health Queensland, Coal Mines Inspectorate Incident Periodical, November 2026.