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US DOT Establishes Pipeline Safety Awareness Website

In response to concerns from citizens, safety groups and San Francisco pipeline explosion lawyers, the US Department of Transportation has established a new website dedicated to increasing awareness about gas pipeline safety.  The need for such websites and other resources to increase awareness about pipeline safety has become especially pronounced, since the massive pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California last year that killed eight people.

On September 9, 2010, a natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in a residential neighborhood in San Diego, California.  The pipeline had been owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Co.  Eight people were killed, and dozens of people were injured.  The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating the cause of the explosion, but initial investigations have revealed that the company’s records failed to indicate that the section of pipeline that ruptured had a weld running through it.  The company’s records erroneously indicated that the pipeline was seamless.

This record keeping error may seem small, but as  San Francisco pipeline explosion attorneys know, a simple error like this can lead to inspection failures.  The National Transportation Safety Board immediately ordered Pacific Gas & Electric Company to review and analyze records to detect any more errors that could prove devastating.  The company is currently in the process of analyzing its records.  In the meantime, two other California utility companies have also admitted that their records show incomplete pressure test data for miles of pipeline running through California.

Last February, another natural gas pipeline explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania, resulted in five deaths.  Three people were injured seriously enough to be hospitalized, and property damage from the explosion was estimated to be about $2.5 million.

Earlier this month, the Department of Transportation announced a national pipeline safety initiative focused on replacing aging and defective pipelines.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on utility companies to conduct a comprehensive and thorough analysis of their pipeline networks to identify pipeline sections that may be at a high risk of explosion.  In such cases, the Transportation Sec. is calling on utility companies to get repairs conducted at the earliest.

The pipeline safety awareness website is part of the Department of Transportation’s initiatives to deal with increasing concerns about the safety of the pipeline network that runs across the country.  Many of these pipelines were laid decades earlier, in rural sparsely populated lands.  Today, those same pipelines travel through residential neighborhoods, schools, parks and other populated zones.  A possible pipeline rupture or explosion almost always ends with multiple fatalities and injuries.

San Francisco personal injury attorneys will encourage Californians to visit the pipeline safety awareness website, and find out safe ways to dig in your yard.  It is important that you contact the utility company to find out whether pipelines are located in your yard, before you begin digging and excavation activities.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of explosions and fires in San Francisco. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire to discuss a personal injury matter,  you can reach us at (213) 290-5033 or email us.

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

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