Oct 31: Chicago backhoe incident

Sun Nov 1 03:08:40 UTC 1998

On Sat, Oct 31, 1998 at 08:30:13PM -0600, Sean Donelan wrote:
> http://www.cnn.com/US/9810/31/gas.main.break.ap/
> 
> Today's backhoe incident involved a 24 inch natural gas pipeline.
> 10 people with minor injuries.

And a 20+ story building condemned as the result of the fire that ensued.

The property loss on this is in the MANY millions of dollars.

> There is some dispute between the excavation company and the
> pipeline operator whether the pipeline was properly marked or
> of the backhoe was operating in the marked area with due care.
> 
> State officials are investigating.

Yep.

Early reports are that the backhoe never was closer than 8' from the markers.
Whether that is accurate, or whether the markers were 8' off (!) is a matter 
of debate right now.

--
-- 
Karl Denninger (karl at denninger.net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl
I ain't even *authorized* to speak for anyone other than myself, so give
up now on trying to associate my words with any particular organization.