While slips and falls are the most common causes of accidents and injuries during the course of the working day, there are several others which can also cause injury and even fatalities. Many of these are concerned with groundwork. When digging or excavating anywhere in the UK, there is always not just the possibility, but the probability, that there are underground services in the area concerned.

Various figures are quoted because nobody knows for sure, but it is estimated that there is some 2.5 million km of underground services in the UK. Since the length of the UK is 965 km and the width 485 km (approximately) that means that there are underground services running, quite literally, all over the place. In turn, that means that wherever you need to excavate – for whatever reason – there is a very good chance that there are services in exactly the place that you need to dig.

This is borne out by the fact that – again, no exact figures are available – there are an estimated 60,000 cable strikes every year. The term “cable strike” is an overall term covering not only electric cables, but also gas pipes, water pipes, sewage pipes, telecoms, and more.

A cable strike can cause everything from a minor inconvenience to fatalities, and indeed there are around a dozen fatalities every year. There are a considerably greater number of cable strikes which result in injury, many of them extremely severe. For example, even if an operator should strike an electricity cable when digging – either by hand or using a machine such as a JCB – and the results are not fatal, arcing electricity can nonetheless cause disastrous burns to the face, hands, arms, and body.

Striking a gas pipe can result in explosion and fire. Even if no immediate explosion occurs, there may be leaking gas over a long period which builds up in the ground just waiting for someone to discard a cigarette end.

Hitting a telephone cable is not all that likely to cause injury but can disrupt businesses in the area since they would have no internet connection, and the costs can run into huge amounts of money.

As an absolute minimum, any contractor causing a cable strike will have to stop work and have men standing idle while the utility concerned carries out repairs, thus causing delays on the project. This can result in financial penalties from the main contractor and claims for damages from other businesses affected.

The organisation LinesearchbeforeUdig has been formed in order to reduce injuries and deaths caused by what it refers to as asset strikes and to ensure a prompt and accurate response to all enquiries from contractors and other parties regarding the position of underground services in the area in which they need to dig. It also exists to help members become aware of proposed works near their assets, so in a sense, it is a two-way street.

Anyone who needs information, that they refer to as a User, can check their proposed works free of charge on the records held by LinesearchbeforeUdig of over 90 asset owners’ utility assets. They have records of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of underground and overhead pipes and cables in the electricity, gas, high-pressure fuel, water, and fibre optic networks, and currently process over 2.5 million enquiries every year.

All of this is of great benefit, of course, but doesn’t make up for the fact that all operatives needing to carry out excavation work must carry out a survey of the area in which they need to dig. This requires the use of trained surveyors skilled in the use of the tools that are used – namely the CAT and Genny.

These are great tools, but, unfortunately, they are not infallible. This is why the courses that we provide in their use at Sygma Solutions are essential for all operatives who need to carry out a survey of underground services, wherever that may be in the UK.

We teach operatives not only how to use the CAT and Genny in all their modes, but how to look out for the possibility of errors that could cause an incorrect reading, or perhaps more correctly an incorrect interpretation of a reading. As a result, we have a renowned track record with contractors and utility companies for reducing the incidence of cable strikes.