Dig Safe
Safety Campaign

To be honest I am sick of preparing investigation report for this particular incident… and i can’t stop thinking WHY3?.. The familiarity is significant; all comply with procedure and preventive measure..piloting , excavation permit, competent operator.. but yet it still happen..What when wrong??! Fortunately at this moment the underground utility is mostly fibre optic cable or telecommunication cable, imagined if a backhoe operator hit electricity cable or gas pipe…. Nauzubillah.. how tragic this incident would be…

While surfing the net, i found that several country has take proactive action such in Ontario, they had a safety campaign throughout a year mainly for excavation..DIG SMART, there is also a hot line number to call such as 811 to provide the contractors on utility location / pipe laying as per in as built drawing. Certain point can be extracted from their campaign which i believe has successfully reduce the frequency rate of this accident . In our country this has not be implemented yet .

Part of the contributing factor in this incident is the location of the underground cable which  is differ from as built drawing ; and in some cases the cable is buried very shallow . Some ‘owner’ even confirmed the location of the cable but still can’t guarantee this incident wont happen. This fibre optic cable is very costly material and Insurance claimed might be high as well.

Preventive measure is vital and to reduce liability to sub-contractor which involved in excavation activity, isn’t it smart if can provide competency training or development program for workers instead of paying for the damage?

Salient Point:-

  • Before excavate, apply excavation permit
  • pegging or pilotting must be carried out before excavate
  • competent operator
  • during excavation no worker allowed to be in the pit for whatever reason because the excavator might fall in the pit and hit the worker
  • construct earth ban/ stop block at the edge of the excavation area.. to prevent the excavator from fall into the pit
  • THE MOST IMPORTANT THING -HAND DIGGING before used machine. Essential when it has been confirmed on the location of the utilities

We can blamed other people  when something when wrong; but have we do our level best to prevent it ?!!

EVERYTHING IS UP TO YOU !!

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