FACTS
- One of the largest causes of utility-related deaths, injuries and service interruptions is excavators damaging underground utility facilities.
- Personal injury (possible loss of life), damage to environment, costly property damage, damage to important utilities that would disable others to make emergency calls or lose the availability of a utility, costly delays, expensive repairs, legal problems, and civil penalties.
- Careless digging can rupture facilities and often cause severe injury, even death, to the unwitting worker – not to mention the loss of utility service to hundreds of people.
- Due to the potential of serious injury / death and interruption of essential service occurring if an underground pipe is accidentally severed, the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act requires that all underground services shall be accurately located and marked prior to excavation.
STATS
- Each year there are over 200,000 incidences of unintentional damage to underground utility infrastructure (including pipelines, electrical, telecommunications, water, and sewer lines), many as a result of an individual who fails to have underground utilities lines located before digging;
- This year alone over 38.6 million individuals will dig in the ground without marking utility lines, which can account for disruption in service in the phone, electric, or gas lines for your community. The statistics collected by the CGA or the Common Ground Alliance, reveals that on average a utility line is damaged every six seconds in the United States.
- On April 13th of 2007, the number 811 was determined to be the national number to call to locate underground utility lines. This year alone, 25 % of the damage that occurs to these lines will be the result of an individual not calling to confirm the locations of the utility lines before they begin digging. 15 % of the damage will be caused by someone believing that the digging that they are doing will not be deep enough to cause any damage.