A ditch witch & underground cables + idiot = ...sigh

[Elixer]

I am sitting at my desk, doing some work, when all of the sudden I hear a loud sound, followed by yelling outside, then, my internet goes down, then UPS alarms go off, and it is dark.

I look outside, and see a bunch of hardhats running around yelling at each other.
Then I look out the other window, where the ISP pedestal...was. Sigh.

Yeah, there was those multi-colored flags all over the place, and orange & red paint all over the lawn for at least 7 houses down the way.
But, have one of these...

and someone who wasn't obviously paying attention, managed to take out the whole line getting it spooled around that, and damage the pedestal and all the other lines down there.

I go walking over there, look at the flags & painted lines, look at the digger, which was around 4 ft away from the markers, and just shake my head.

It took a freaking 1 1/2 weeks to get the lines & pedestal fixed. 🙁

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I saw Witch, what can I do for you?

 

[Ichinisan]

Mudderfudders

 

[IronWing]

I saw Witch, what can I do for you?

He wants a pedestal. Put him on a pedestal.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Those things look scary to use (unless it's a rental and you got the insurance, I guess lol) as even if you got a locate done how do you know you're not going to run into a huge boulder or something. Or do they actually use some kind of geo surveying tools before they actually use those?

I'm sure that was a funny scene to watch all the hard hats running around and that whole situation undergoing lol. A face palm moment there.

 

[Humpy]

I want to believe but no actual pictures?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Pictures of the scene would definitely provide some lulz. I'm just picturing a bunch of guys in high vis vests and hard hats waving their arms around the trencher with wiring wrapped around the chain and smoke coming out of it.

 

[Elixer]

Sorry, after seeing the damage, I was too mad, and I was on a deadline, so I had to scramble to find another location to finish my work after it became clear nothing could be done for awhile, and by the time I got back 8 hours later, all that was left was three big mounds of dirt and a ton of "caution" tape all in front of the yard.

A few days later, they were out digging again, and the lead guy came to the door and apologized for everything (guy couldn't have been nicer), they will pay for my expenses and all that, and explained that the guy that did the damage was fired, and the spotter was also fired. It basically was the spotter & the ditch witch operator arguing about some girl.
The guy said the operator wasn't paying attention and got irate when he thought the spotter was talking to the girl, proceeded to cut and then when he hit the cables, he panicked, and went full instead of backing off.

I had a chest freezer of food go bad, along with whatever was left in the fridge, but, for that stuff I had pics, needed to get reimbursed. Will see how that goes.

 

[Ns1]

It's a goddamn shame all that caviar you had went to waste. Good thing you're getting reimbursed for that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Sucks for someone to get fired over that though, shit happens. Always hated the concept of firing someone over one mistake.

 

[Darwin333]

Sucks for someone to get fired over that though, shit happens. Always hated the concept of firing someone over one mistake.

Arguing over a girl while operating heavy machinery cutting into ground containing utilities is not exactly a simple "mistake"...

If someone had cut my power and internet for a week and a half because they were arguing over a girl I'd want them keelhauled at the least, on an aircraft carrier...

 

[XavierMace]

Always hated the concept of firing someone over one mistake.

Once your mistake is of a certain magnitude, no you shouldn't get a second chance.

 

[Rubycon]

Call before you dig. No excuse.

 

[Crono]

Witches be crazy

 

[BoomerD]

I came -> <- close to a major "Oh FUCK" several years ago. I was putting in some underground conduit from my back yard to the circuit breaker panel on the side of the house...with a small, walk-behind ditch witch. Other than ripping out a few sprinkler lines...(and I was redoing the sprinkler system, so no biggie) I finished the trench. While shoveling out the loose soil, I found that I had missed the buried plastic natural gas line by only a couple of inches. PG&E had been out, marked where the gas line ran, and told me, "Oh, it's at least 5' deep." It was just over 24" deep. 😵 <phew>

 

[sdifox]

Call before you dig. No excuse.

They did. Flags were up.

 

[zinfamous]

It's a goddamn shame all that caviar you had went to waste. Good thing you're getting reimbursed for that.

and those 36 lbs of A-5 Wagyu beef ribeye that OP had stashed in his fridge

 

[zinfamous]

Sucks for someone to get fired over that though, shit happens. Always hated the concept of firing someone over one mistake.

Guess how much $$$ the company has to reimburse all those people that lost utilities for a week or longer? Yeah....

 

[Elixer]

and those 36 lbs of A-5 Wagyu beef ribeye that OP had stashed in his fridge

$100/lb... and people buy that? 😵