Electrical Injuries Part One

I’m Katelyn Holub, an attorney focusing on personal injury law in northwest Indiana.

Welcome to Personal Injury Primer, where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss personal injury law topics.

Today’s question comes from a caller concerned about an injury he suffered while trying to use an EV charging station. He said he had to charge his car, but the charging cable looked like it had been stretched when another user drove away. When he grabbed it he received an electric shock and suffered second-degree burns on his hands. He was calling and asking about his legal rights.

Where electrical lines exist along highways, streets, alleys, and other areas where private citizens are likely to be found – certainly including parking lots, Indiana courts have imposed on electrical providers a high degree of care.

While electrical utilities have a general duty that is owed to everyone, the particular facts of a case can also trigger other duties owed to identifiable parties.

A company generating and distributing electricity has to safely insulate electric power lines in places where the general public may come in contact with those lines. The term “general public” includes persons who would in the course of daily events, be exposed to danger by the presence of an uninsulated wire carrying a dangerous voltage of electricity.

Based on the caller’s statement that another user may have damaged the wire, the duty of a power company to act may depend upon whether the electric utility had actual knowledge or notice of circumstances that created an imminent danger to an individual.

Put another way, if the charging station was safe, before another patron damaged it, and the power company knew nothing about the damage, it may be difficult to hold the power company legally responsible unless of course it failed to use reasonable means to make the charging station safe and damage proof.

In our next podcast, we will discuss a likely defense to be raised against the caller if he decides to sue the power company.

I hope you found this information helpful. If you are a victim of someone’s carelessness, substandard medical care, product defect, work injury, or another personal injury, please call (219) 736-9700 with your questions. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at DavidHolubLaw.com – while there, make sure you request a copy of our book “Fighting for Truth.”