ROCKMAN wrote:Absolutely no excuse for such an accident. Just a guess but the contractor may have went cheap and didn't hire a pipeline locator to flag it TO THE INCH.
This whole thing seems kind of bizarre to me.
In '12, I had a bunch of work done on my house for improvements and problems. So multiple trenches had to be dug.
In each case, the water, electric, and gas companies came out and indicated where the lines were. It wasn't to the inch, but it was quite close. The closer my description for where we were going to dig, the more accurate and complete were the markings.
And there were no exceptions. When I called after the first time, stated we were digging in the same area, and already knew where the lines were from the previous time -- it didn't matter. Even when I stated I was 100% confident no one had, for example, added gas or water lines while I wasn't paying attention, the rules were ironclad -- in each case of any digging -- all the utilities had to mark their lines -- no exceptions, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
...
So, if they're going to be like this for a regular home-owner (I didn't care to defy them and potentially pay huge fines, even when I knew I'd learn ZERO from the marking that would be done), one would think that in any rational system, the fines/penalties SHOULD be EPIC for people involved in the oil/gas industry, working near known MAJOR pipelines.
Maybe some of these companies should start getting sued out of existence, or sued to the tune of the VW cheating fine, and then such companies would stop doing massive stupid sh*t like this.
Just one law abiding taxpaying consumer's opinion.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.