Page 7 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2017 Issue 4
P. 7

important to the investigation.  .— II
walter said it's best to leave the area -

undisturbed until measurements can _ . -

be made and an investigation can . : 4'.

begin waltergathers clues fmm the .r

scene, talks to the involved parties CV‘ 1' T! '- N V-'_

and takes plenty or photos. when the v ‘ - I . .. , '. V i

investigation is complete, he works up _ H ‘ _. . -, “:4 i ~- -L. f3 '5"

a written report thatis used mostly tor I ‘ K ..;,_—s  ‘:3 g

intemal troobleshooting and honing of ' ~c. :- . I _ , ‘ _ ‘ - ‘ ' j __
company policy V‘ ’ ‘tr. -trsfi-t .. r r_ --5. -

"We will discuss the report with our - -_ ~. e- - .4 cf ., -
satety committee and talk about what ‘. _ A -.-~ ~‘. ‘ .

went iight, what went wrong and what ‘ M ‘ ».: ~ . ' .5“

to do to prevent it trom happening _ A «  »\\J‘ ?

again," he said. ’’Even the best R s,‘ I; ._ ‘ - v t: .,

operation will hit one now and then " i K g- 5 _ ‘ '-

You don't have to be a veteran satety " ( 

expert like walter or work torahuge ‘ _ we-A,_ , wt“ - 7- ‘V -_

company to come away vnth important l c‘ *‘ '- - rt. .; ix; ‘. ‘

and potentially lite-saving inioi-ination » r '

trom a utility strike And what you A. g ' _ -4 . ~39 3 _
learn could help prevent you or a co— ‘ : ‘ -‘fir _ V ‘ - ‘—_‘- k
worker trom making the same mistakes t_.v -. . 2 ,-V‘ ,

again. g s t ti; ' __ &
Excavation companies can track _ . §

their own mistakes and help prevent .. - .,

tuture damages by keeping a ’’hit kit” " : _ .2‘ -

with each crew A hit kit includes, at ‘ t ,; :

minimum, three important obiectsi a M _ » .i 1 u

stake or other marker to help identity A X 5,-_. ‘

the locate marks, a similar marker or g \“—.5 t

a ditterent color that can identity the R <— ‘ 4. ; 

damage and an oversized ruler to show K E ' ,_ . _;

the distance between the two. r_ I -,;-:12 »

A regular smartphone can be used to ‘ ‘ ;.fl ‘ ‘
document the scene trom 350 degrees,  9’! V .' .~

with experts recommending photos I 1, . , 

taken at the 12, 3, e and 9 o'clock 1 _‘,, ’ ‘x  ‘
positions around the damage - ‘ v '.~ u ‘
once the measurements and photos r" I  -
have been taken, a quick report can -' , _ , y .

be written, and presented to the — 7 . - ‘ .- I . - ., t; _
company's satety team to start a @ — — ' ~ A -‘
discussion about what went wrong, and

how to prevent rlamage on iuture iob get into it. liust want iolks to be sate mailbox, they need to call in a locate
sites teaming from mistakes is key Thats my main thing. The piimary is to Mississippi 311," he said. "A lot of

getting iolks aware that we don't want tolks don't realize that it's not put a

walter wanted readers to know that h h d 11 . i 1 b h Yh

h.>_ fim M" H“ M“ a dam 9 t is to appen again, an c arging or aw, ut a convenience tot em n em”

“ P 9 5 3. the damage is secondary as tar as I'm they don t disrupt anybody s ~'l:rvl(v:.

investigation is satety 7 both during (bummed ,,

the attermath of a utility strike, and the walter said the reports mostly stay
steps taken to prevent tuture accidents. ultimately, walterts goal is to reduce in-house, or they may share it with
He wants excavators to be able to team incidents and help spread the word to involved parties like the excavator and
trom the incident, and his typical goal the CDl'nm(|llmIy Lhfal §\l'12l'yu;1E who dig lV[|;;‘i~‘.}s“|p1fi 211. They d:l1'l;ypll(a1ly
isn't to prosecute or line excavators, is require to noti y an to use sa r pu is t c names o in ivi ua s
except in extreme situations digging techniques where possible or companies involved damage

"If someone hits us, we try to talk about "We have been working to educate ‘“"““‘5‘“‘°““

what went wrong and write a report," home builders that if they're doing "We're not out here to embarrass

he said. "Not that we wouldn't ever something as simple as putting in a anybody we just want to make sure it
charge tor clamages, but we try not to doesn't happen again," he said. W

2017, Vssus A Mosissiae B11 . 5

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