OMG!! That is horrible, but luckily no loss of life (according to one of the responders, and I hope he is correct).
We have so much burried stuff now, it is dangerous to do normal farming. Part of the problem is the line burial is often done by a subcontractor so the utility company has no liability, and the subcontractor goes out of business often and re-emerges with a different company name, shedding their liability.
120 and 240 volt lines are to be burried at least 24" deep, by code. So I was doing some final landscaping at a suburban house about 20 years ago. With a Troy Built 6Hp tiller, I hit the main burried electrical supply line to the house. I was not any deeper than 3". The power company claimed that I had removed over 20" or soil and wanted to charge me with the accident. I was damm lucky to not have been electricuted!!
My son-in-law works for a petroleum pipe line company. There is a great amount of corrosion in the pipelines, even though they do a lot to minimize corrosion. But many of the leaks and accidents are due to internal corrosion and internal pressure often exceeding 1000 psi. And yet these pipelines may go through residential neighborhoods. There is a high pressure pipeline within 20 ft of my brother's basement, going diagonally across his property, and about 4 ft from the corner of his pole barn. They determine a leak by monitering pressure drops at the next pumping station. By the time the pipeline company knows they have a leak, an awful lot of gas has escaped and probably already filled up some or many houses. The pipeline company has the status of a "utility", meaning they have the power of emminent domain and can go anywhere they want to.
I have hit and pulled up telephone lines with a normal 4 bottom plow. A neighbor had a guy running a bobcat cleaning manure from their pole shed. He hit and pulled up a fiber optic cable inside the pole shed, and he was not digging!
Yes, call the locate number (here it is 811, IIRC), but they only locate the main utilities, going only as far as the meter. They do not locate the privately placed underground wires for phone, electric, water or sewer. To locate the privately placed wires, pipes or gas lines, you have to hire a private locate company, and that can cost over $250.
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