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California’s Dangerous Pipelines Cause Worry

It appears that problems of pipeline integrity are not restricted to Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the company that operated the pipeline which exploded in September last year in San Bruno, killing eight people.  Two more major California utility companies have informed state regulators that they have no way of proving that they have conducted many critical safety tests on hundreds of miles of gas pipelines.

The confessions came from San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas and Electric Co.  In January, California state regulators asked utility companies to review their safety records and report records involving pressure test data.

The orders from the California Public Utilities Commission came after a deadly explosion ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood, killing eight people.  The pipeline in that explosion was operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.  Several people were injured, as the blast ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood.  Investigations after the accident found that there was a weld in that particular stretch of pipeline that ruptured.  However, records of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. did not indicate that the particular pipeline section, was welded at all.  The records wrongly identified that section of pipeline as being seamless.  The National Transportation Safety Board began an investigation into that incident, and recommended that California regulators ask utility companies to review the records to find out whether any other such record keeping errors have gone unnoticed.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. admitted that it has not been able to find complete pressure test records present in its vast pipeline network.  The company could only find records for about two-thirds of its total high-pressure pipelines.  The company is currently engaged in a massive review of the records, to find whether any other events or any other defects on any other sections of pipeline have gone unreported in its recording system.

This week, the two California utilities said that they were continuing their analysis of their records, but have not found complete pressure test records for about 450 miles of the pipeline network.  That is about 28% of the total length of the pipelines that run across California, including through neighborhoods, schools and parks.  According to Sempra, it will continue to look for the records.  In the meantime, the company also plans to lower the pressure along which gas is moved along its pipelines.  It is also planning to increase the frequency of inspections.

The utilities have tried to downplay the importance of the fact that pressure test data cannot be found in their records.  However, to California gas pipeline explosion lawyers and pipeline safety experts, the fact that these two utilities have such a wide gap in their records definitely indicates a record-keeping deficiency that could prove dangerous.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act fixed standards for the presence of lead in children’s products, including toys.  It also required the federal agency to set mandatory safety standards for toddler beds, as well as other infant and child products.

The new toddler bed safety standards include the following:

1. The upper edge of the guardrail must be positioned at least 5 inches above the mattress.
2. The spindle/slat strength testing must be consistent with the current requirements for crib slats and spindles.
3. Manufacturers must fix warning labels on the toddler beds that caution parents against strangulation and entrapment hazards.

The above-mentioned rules also apply to cribs that are converted into toddler beds.  The guidelines will go into effect after they are published in the Federal Register.

The new federal safety standards for toddler beds are part of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s continued efforts to improve children’s product safety.  They come after the federal agency set new mandated standards for a number of other children’s products, including cribs, infant walkers and infant bath seats.  Last year in December, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a complete ban on the sale, manufacture, and distribution of drop side cribs.  That ban came in response to growing concerns by California product liability attorneys and parents, about the suffocation and entrapment hazards posed by the use of the drop side cribs.  Over the past few years, dozens of suffocation/entrapment and fall incidents linked to these cribs have been reported from around the country.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s renewed focus on children’s product safety has not gone unnoticed by the manufacturing industry.  Manufacturer recalls have actually increased since 2007, and manufacturers have been proactive about letting the public know about possibly defective or dangerous products before these cause injuries.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission has also established a registration card system that requires manufacturers to include a registration card with several children’s products, including cribs and strollers.  The card will allow the manufacturer to alert parents about recalls and warnings much more easily.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pipeline explosions. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire to discuss a personal injury matter,  you can reach us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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