For Immediate Release | Contact: Matt Missentzis (703) 574-7376
New Aii Policy Study Makes the Case for Changes
to State Damage Prevention Programs
WASHINGTON (Aug 11, 2016) — Excavation safety advocates must work to implement state laws and regulations that require mandatory incident reporting, encourage best practices, and improve communication throughout the utility locating and excavation process, Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure Policy Advisor Shane Skelton (@ShaneSkelton) argues in a new policy study.
Skelton notes that, “Updating state laws and regulations to make incident reporting mandatory will go a long way to strengthen predictive modeling and discern excavation damage trends from year to year. Inadequate participation in voluntary reporting leaves us unable to identify exactly which excavation practices are causing these unnecessary utility service interruptions, which degrade our underground infrastructure, and at times lead to injury and even fatality.”
Skelton cites the Common Ground Alliance’s (CGA) Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) as a key beneficiary to enhanced damage reporting laws and regulations at the state level adding, “enhancing the efficacy of the Common Ground Alliance’s DIRT report will help policymakers better understand incident trends, causes and more.”
Text of the full paper can be found here: https://www.aii.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Improving-Upon-Our-Dig-Laws-How-State-Legislatures-Can-Help-Us-Dig-Safer.pdf
About: The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) is an independent, national, educational organization dedicated to identifying our nation’s infrastructure needs, creating awareness of those needs, and developing public-private partnerships to address those issues. Aii strives to promote proven, innovative technology and higher safety standards to achieve industry excellence nationwide. The Alliance consists of two non-profits, the National Infrastructure Safety Foundation (NISF) 501(c)(4) and the Public Institute for Facility Safety (PIFS) 501(c)(3).
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