Message from the DOT: Pipeline Incidents Are Deadly Reminders to Make that One Call

The Fast Lane is the official blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. It is one of the best blogs on transportation issues on the net, including the one posted below, reminding contractors that One Call is essential for safety:

Last week was a deadly one for workers near pipelines in Texas. In two separate incidents, three men were killed and 11 injured when workers digging in the ground struck natural gas pipelines.

We are fortunate to have a system in place — One Call — to make sure these kinds of incidents don’t happen. And investigations are underway to determine whether workers involved in the two Texas explosions called 811 and how the utilities and pipeline operators may have responded. But, given the deaths of these three workers and the injuries to their co-workers, I want to remind workers whose jobs require them to dig underground to call 811 before you dig.

It’s not only the law; it saves lives.

Whether you’re drilling into the ground to install utility poles, as the workers in Cleburne were doing on June 7, or digging for caliche with a bulldozer, as the workers in Darrouzett were doing the very next day, excavation can be dangerous. And the damage from excavation poses a serious threat, not only to the workers involved, but to everyone in the area.

America has a vital transportation system that remains virtually invisible to most of us: the network of 2.3 million miles of pipelines criss-crossing this nation just beneath the surface. Those pipelines carry a tremendous load and perform a very important service. However, as vital as those pipelines are, they are still vulnerable to digging and drilling. Dialing 811, our national “Call Before You Dig” number, connects excavators anywhere in the country to One-Call centers to alert utility owners and pipeline operators of planned digging activities.

To read the complete blog written by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood visit his blog here or other posts at http://fastlane.dot.gov/.