Thanks in advance for any answers here. At what point should a cable/utility strike be reported under RIDDOR. I have a copy of Schedule 2 which states under Section 14 about pipelines stating any damage which has the potential to cause the death of, major injury etc but my query is if we break a streetlighting cable or catch a small gas pipe resulting in some release should these strictly be reported???? We had a recent incident where a mini digger (with a toothless bucket) was being used to expose an old steel gas main and caught a small mdpe top tee protruding 6" above the pipe. There was no sand or tape present around any of the existing pipe. It resulted in a small gas leak but was repaired by SGN within 2 hours. No injuries occurred. Similar incident a few months back when we exposed a small section of cable while excavating a drain track which we deemed at the time to be redundant and waste, there was no flash or similar. In hindsight the cable would have been unenergised during the day. We didn't even know it was a 'live' cable until 3 weeks later we received a bill from Scottish Power for the repair. Should you report these to RIDDOR??? Thanks Kevin

Kevin Construction is most certaily not my area of great knowledge; but I thought that the responsibility for reporting pipeline dangerous occurrences rests with the pipeline operator. So if you strike one and get the gas board in to fix it and it is reportable then they would report it. That said I would imagine that you would also want to carry out your own in house investigation; and i the HSE were to follow up RIDDOR report then you would most definately need some details.

HSE (RIDDOR) are interested in Dangerous Occurences (as defined), not near misses. The imperative is to report ALL damage to the utility. They get VERY miffed if you don't. Bear in mind that a 'nicked' insulation invariably fails later on, resulting in great inconvience and double costs for what could have been repaired the same day.

In the case of a pipeline which is subject to "pipeline works", then it is the person undertaking the works. As Ron makes clear, the utility provider is frequently unaware of the damage caused to their utility. The contractor undertaking the works that damaged the utility has a responsibility to report it as they will have all of the details of the incident, and it was caused by them: not the pipeline / utility owner.

I dont really see this as a recurring problem per se as these are the only 2 such incidents we have had this year. All our guys carry CAT in their vans and are trained to use them. We were aware of the likelihood of the streetlighting cable as we had up-to-date service drawings shwoing us but in reality the cable was laid so shallow that when we lifted the tar, only 150mm thk the cable was encased in the base of the tar. With regards the gas pipe we were in the process of exposing an existing main and were tracking along the pipe as part of the planned diversion works. The existing main had no tape or sand surround. A banksman was presetn at all times and the excavator was only scraping 50mm maximum at a time. We were fully aware of the main pipe at all times. That said point noted.!!!

I have to agree with Murphy18748 in that if every single utitility strike were reported to RIDDOR they would become overwhelmed. As long as every strike is reported to the utility owner to ensure proper repairs are carried out and that no injuries or serious disruption to services occurs then carry out your own in-house investigation and action accordingly. Even using CAT and safe digging practices there will still be cable strikes due to some utilities contractors failing to follow their own guidelines of depths and protective measures e.g. tiles, marker tape and sand. I have been witness time and time again to some, not all, utility contractors using bad practice to get the job done quick and ultimately cheap!!!!!.

Look at it the other way round every Utility Company in my experience report all strikes notified to the HSE - Then if the HSE decide it is a Riddor event guess who will be questioned about non reporting Bob