With a Keen Eye on Safety, Gaines & Company Crew Spots Dangerous Lines and Saves Lives

These guys save lives. Gaines and Company crew diverted a potentially catastrophic event when their acute attention to safety led to the discovery of unmarked oxygen and nitrogen lines.

Gaines and Company Foreman Brian Kerns and his crew were about to embark on a routine concrete storm drain pipe installation in Curtis Bay, Maryland, when he and co-worker Christian Perez noticed some yellow tubes sticking out of the ground.

The crew were performing onsite test pitting with equipment to locate buried utilities when they saw the suspicious vent tubes, or stand pipes, about two feet in the air. Kerns then found some signs that had fallen down and suddenly realized they were dealing with dangerous hidden nitrogen and oxygen lines, one six inches and the other, eight.

Kerns immediately halted all work and called Safety Director Dominic Pope to report the unmarked hazard. Pope quickly looked up the Miss Utility ticket for that job location but it plainly said ‘cleared no conflict.’

“Brian’s diligence to figure this out, to stop work and bring it to everyone’s attention diverted a catastrophic event,” said Pope, who after talking with a compressed gas expert found that the lines contained a highly combustible, condensed nitrogen and oxygen vapor in the negative 200 to 300 Celsius range. Pope further noted that if the line had been hit it would have most likely caused injury or even death to anyone within ten feet from either a spark or by inhalation. “Because of this crew’s awareness, we were able to prevent that from happening,” he said.

Pope also brought the matter to the attention of the Maryland Damage Prevention Authority.

Gaines and Company has impeccable safety training and an interactive safety excellence program, which also attributes to the crew’s ability to prevent accidents as they did on that day. Employees can earn safety bucks and scratchers by just such an example for their new online safety recognition e-store. Each member of Kern’s crew promptly received 50 safety bucks to spend on gear.

Pope even gave one lucky crewmember a scratcher when he answered a safety question correctly. This daily attention to safety is what saves lives.

“We care about the public and co-workers and want to work safely,” Pope says about Gaines and Company. “These are the guys that ultimately make up our great safety program.”

Gaines and Company is a turnkey site development company with over 60 years of experience in underground utilities, grading and excavating, sediment and erosion controls, road work such as paving and sidewalks, and storm water management with superior service in Maryland, North Carolina, Washington D.C. and Delaware.