I’LL BET A QUID THERE ARE NO LIVE CABLES UNDERGROUND WHENEVER OUR GUYS START TO DIG. BUT I WOULDN'T BET MY LIFE. OR THEIRS.

Betting a quid is one thing. Betting your life is Russian Roulette.

On average, every year in the UK, 70 people suffer life-changing injuries because they strike a live cable when digging.

None of those incidents need to happen.

Not one of them.

In the sign industry, very few companies scan the ground before sinking ground-mounted sign fixings.

Why?

Because they won’t be drilling very deep, and they assume that underground services shouldn’t be that shallow.

“Assume”. “Shouldn’t be”.

I’d stake, say, a quid, in every such case, that there actually won’t be services that shallow. In almost every case, I’d win my bet. Almost every case. Not every one.

So here’s the thing. I wouldn’t stake my life. And I wouldn’t place a bet if the penalty for losing was life-changing injury.

Yet, for some inextricable reason, people do.

I’ve personally seen live cables 25mm below the ground on a filling station forecourt. No, they shouldn’t have been there, but that’s irrelevant, because they were.

25mm. Every sign company digs deeper than that. Even Rawlbolts used to fix ground signs are longer than that. 

If you’re a forecourt owner you may think “well that’s awful, but it’s not my problem.”

Except it probably will be, if you didn’t exercise due diligence when hiring a contractor. 

For example, if you didn’t check that they would scan before digging; or if you knew or suspected cables were present, but forgot to mention it. 

Courts regard lack of due diligence leading to fatalities as corporate manslaughter, which can carry a custodial sentence for bosses.

You need to ensure, as part of your due diligence, that scanning will be carried out before digging – because how can a contractor be deemed competent if it doesn’t do that?

Here’s what we do:

1. Our sign installation crews are all issued with a CAT scanner; they have all had CAT scan training; and they are all certified as competent CAT scanner users. The training was not done on the cheap, from the one person in the company who says they know how to do it, but from an approved external training provider.

2. They all have access to complementary online refresher training, via our XmoHub system.

3. It’s a mandatory part of their procedures that no digging takes place, and no fixings are drilled into the ground, until the area has been scanned. The scans will be done even if the project coordinator fails to request one.

4. The crews can see the results immediately, of course. But our scanners also automatically transmit the data to our CATSHub safety management system, and all scans are reviewed at our monthly Health & Safety Lead Team Meetings. So if someone rushes a scan, we’ll know. All the scans, and scan requests are traceable. In the extremely unlikely event that one of our crews did hit a live cable, we’d be able to prove due diligence on the client's behalf. 

5. The reviews are used to monitor performance and allocate additional training where necessary.

6. We belong to the Utility Strike Avoidance Group (www.utilitystrikeavoidancegroup.org) and adhere to its Charter.  

The Energy Networks Association (https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/energynetworks/) has produced a great short film on this, and the motto they impress on anyone drilling into the ground is ‘plan, scan, think before you dig’. Around 31% of construction workers don’t bother, they say.

Well, we do. 

Because we’d be happy to bet a quid, at any given site, that there are no live cables under the surface.

But we won’t bet our lives. 

You can check out my other articles here. 

Let's keep in touch through this very tough period!

Xmo Strata's LinkedIn page (sign installation and maintenance) is here.

The SpectisGB LinkedIn page (scanning and digital reconstruction) is here.

Please visit my profile and send me a connection request if we have things in common ... and stay safe!