Before using this tool, call for buried utility locations.
Scary story on request.
Before using this tool, call for buried utility locations.
Scary story on request.
Oooh....gas line? Fireworks?
Nah, it was just a phone drop. No big deal, right?
Wrong.
Fortunately, no one was DEAD wrong.
These brainless twits hammered t-posts for tomato tower support in their garden - carefully planted DIRECTLY over the utility easement including
8,000-volts of electric service. The darned transformer on its pad, clearly marked with danger labels, was barely ten feet away!The t-post severed their neighbor's 5-pair telephone drop. When I first surveyed the scene, what could *I* do? The t-post could be a FOOT away from the high voltage or mere millimeters. I couldn't just walk up to the thing and start yanking on it or even be anywhere NEAR it.
I called the power utility. That tech, with his 35k-insulated rubber gloves and me wearing my 20k-insulated gloves, grabbed the t-post and worked it back out of the ground without incident. I dug-up and repaired the damaged phone drop.
The fortunate-to-be-alive dweeb neighbor could have bought the most expensive tomatoes from the most expensive store for years for the amount they were billed for the damage they caused. Nevermind they were rather lucky to simply still be alive.
Call before you dig. Everyone pays for the "free" service, so you might as well be SAFE rather than sorry - or dead.
underground high voltage lines should be required by law to be protected my metal conduit or plastic armored conduit.
Ha! ...and you think your electric bill is high today?
Conduit would NOT have saved the customer pounding-in t-posts. It would have gone right through plastic conduit or so severely damaged anything armored that it would have to be dug-up and fixed anyway.
The overall CO$T for placing all buried primary power cables in conduit would VASTLY (and I mean beyond comprehension) outstrip the cost of damage done to the unarmored stuff. Call before you dig.
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