AN EXPERIENCED railway worker was electrocuted and killed after breaching safety rules, an inquest heard.

A jury of four men and four women decided that the death of Bruno Rivera on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was an accident.

The 41-year-old overhead electrical engineer was electrocuted by a 25,000-volt current from a main power cable on the high-speed link.

Mr Rivera, a Frenchman who lived at Twiss Avenue, Hythe, had stepped on to a hydraulic platform after searching a stabled train for tools near Westenhanger train station on March 28, 2003.

In doing so, he went within the 2.75m zone that rail workers keep to when the line is live or ‘energised’ and either touched or got too close to the power cables.

He suffered 80 per cent burns and had all of his clothes burnt off apart from his boots and one sock.

A fellow Frenchman and rail worker, Kamel Ait Quali told the inquest: "I saw him in flames. I knew he wouldn't be alive after that."

Witnesses saw and heard a loud explosion. Charlie Crayford, a nearby resident, found Mr Rivera on fire and called the emergency services.

An expert in installing and testing overhead catenary systems (OCS), Mr Rivera, who had 25 years of experience working on the railways, did not adhere to the OCS rules, coroner Rachel Redman and the jury was told.

All workers are told to treat the line as live after the first energisation, which took place on this part of the line on March 16.

The power had been switched off again, but the link had been re-energised at 6pm on the day of Mr Rivera’s death.

He had gone to Westenhanger at 7.30pm with friend and colleague Kamel Ait Quali on the way home.

He admitted they had not been thinking about the possibility of the power being on when they turned up.

A series of site notices and warning notes telling staff about the rail going live had been sent out in the days and weeks before the tragedy.

PC Calvin Kent, who investigated the incident, said: “From the evidence I had he was a very conscientious person and work was very important to him.

“Unfortunately there are set rules and procedures within CTRL which have to be obeyed.

“He’s worked in this environment for many years and he would not intentionally come in to contact with overhead power cables.”

Andrew Stretton, a health and safety inspector who specialises on the railways, told the inquest: “You must not climb on to any platform or deck above the height of the wagon or come within the 2.75m unless you are part of a work group and have a permit to work.

“Once a line is energised it must be treated as live at all times.”

Mr Rivera’s death was the only fatality during the completion of the CTRL between Cheriton, Folkestone, and Fawkham Junction.