The Importance of Properly Trained Personnel

The Importance of Properly Trained Personnel

I want to share an incident that I was involved in a few years ago that resulted in a high potential incident on a multi-well battery site. It occurred in early fall, on a live site that was undergoing a significant expansion project. The protocol for performing a ground disturbance on a live site was to have two line locates done by two approved independent line locating organizations, and then compare them to the site as-builts as final confirmation before daylighting. This protocol was followed, and the locate marks indicated there were no conflicts within the dig site or within our 30 metre search area.

With that information, two windows were cut with the hydrovac on either side of the dig site which were clear. The operator and spotter were given an all clear to begin digging. After digging approximately 10 metres of trench, a live high voltage buried electrical line was struck. How could this happen when the closest conflict shown on the line locate drawing and as-builts were indicated as more than 30 metres away!?!

When the excavator hit the line, there was a significant “BANG” and arc flash—it could have caused significant injury, or worse, to the spotter and the equipment operator. Fortunately, neither were hurt.

The incident investigation highlighted two deficiencies: 

1. Although we were well outside the identified conflict zones according to the obtained information, we should have cut windows across the entire dig site. We then would have determined that the high voltage line was originally buried with a large “expansion” loop for which there was no explanation. 
2. Both line locating companies had dispatched inexperienced locating crews. For one of the crews, it was their first unsupervised job, while the second crew had only been locating for three months, and they had only located pipelines. Neither crew had ever located on a busy, congested site such as this one. 

The workers for both crews outlined in the second deficiency had minimal training. Although both companies had training protocols, shortcuts were taken because of a labour shortage. Both companies and the site supervisor were reprimanded because of this. 

The point of the story is to offer a reminder to use all of the tools in your ground disturbance toolbox. Remember—locating is only one of the things you must do to perform safe ground disturbances. Incidents like this can be avoided if all parties involved follow their codes of practice, and if personnel are properly trained to do their job.

Darcy Nolte  - Southeast College