From: Sean Donelan [mailto:sean@donelan.com] Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2000 6:59 AM
I noticed these two points, from you message, and moved them together. If this is the current business case, for excavators;
A review of 582 damage incidents caused by excavator error resulted in an average cost to the excavator of $1,488 per incident. It is often less expensive for the excavator to dig through the utilities than around them.
Then what do you think would happen if the real costs were passed on for them to pay?
Sprint estimates the cost to repair a single cable cut between $50,000 to $65,000. Loss of Use costs may be over $200,000.
This sounds real accurate. Why aren't the excavators seeing these costs? I'd bet a saw-buck that their behavior would be modified if this was what they were hit with.
In one court case, the excavator's president testified that it was his company's standard practice to ignore OSHA regulations, ANSI standards, and guidelines set out in Bell South brochures and to always excavate with mechanized equipment directly over the orange paint marks showing the location of underground telecommunications facilities. He further testified that his company averaged one and one-half cable cuts a month, and considered damging underground facilities as simple a cost of doing business.
I'm only a businessman, but this sounds like he's a creature that has adapted adequately to his environment.
My questions: If he always dug directly over the orange paint marks, why was the locate so poor he only hit a cable once ever month and a half?
This one made ne laugh for a solid five minutes. ROTFLMAO!