Grant Piraine
Nov 8, 2023
Understanding Responsibility in a Missed Utility Locate
At Own Your Safety Inc., we specialize in investigating and defending buried utility infrastructure damage claims, particularly for the insurance and legal communities. Through this work, we support claims representatives, insurance advisors, underwriters, and legal counsel in navigating the technical and operational realities behind locate-related incidents.
Having participated in numerous damage investigations and legal cases, one theme is consistent. Negligence is rarely about intent. It is far more often about misunderstanding roles, failing to communicate limitations, or assuming that someone else was responsible for managing risk.
Whenever I present or lead learning sessions on public and private utility locates, there is one question that always comes up:
“If I hire a private locate contractor and they miss a buried facility that I then hit, who is responsible?”
While the question sounds straightforward, the answer is not. Liability cannot be determined without a detailed investigation of the specific facts. However, responsibility typically falls on one or a combination of the following parties:
Public Locator
Private Locator
Private Landowner
Excavator
To understand how responsibility is assigned, it is critical to understand the role each party plays in the locate process.
Public Locator Responsibility
Public locators perform locate services on behalf of 811 or One Call member utility owners. Their work is generally supported by access to utility records, system maps, and operational knowledge provided by the utility owner.
Despite this support, public locators may bear responsibility when:
Accurate utility records were available, but buried facilities were not located and marked within the allowable tolerance zone.
Records were not properly reviewed or interpreted, resulting in a missed facility that was marked as clear within the work area.
Public locators are not expected to locate what does not exist in utility records, but they are expected to competently locate what they have been provided and to communicate any limitations encountered during the locate.
Private Locator Responsibility
Private locators typically work on private property and often without the level of record access or system knowledge available to public locators. Many private locates are performed with limited information, which significantly increases risk.
However, private locators may be responsible when:
Accurate records were provided by the property owner, but facilities were not located and marked within the stated tolerance distance.
Drawings, access, or site interviews were not requested when they were reasonably available.
Aboveground utility structures that were visible or shown on drawings were missed.
Critical areas such as mechanical rooms were not investigated when access was available.
Limitations encountered during the locate were not clearly documented on the locate report.
A private locator’s obligation includes identifying and communicating what could not be located, not just what was marked.
Private Landowner Responsibility
Private landowners play a critical and often underestimated role in the locate process. They are the owners of privately installed and maintained buried facilities and are frequently the only source of information about their existence.
A private landowner may bear responsibility when:
Utility records do not exist or were not made available, forcing the locator to work blind on a complex site.
Access to utility rooms, connection points, or knowledgeable site personnel was not provided.
Non-traceable facilities existed on-site and no mitigation measures were implemented or communicated.
When private landowners fail to provide information or access, risk is transferred to everyone else on the project.
Excavator Responsibility
Excavators are the final decision-makers before ground disturbance begins. Regardless of who performed the locate, excavators retain responsibility for how the information is used in the field.
Excavators may be responsible when:
Utility records were not requested from the landowner or provided to the private locator.
Access to buildings or site personnel was not secured prior to work.
Locate limitations were ignored or not properly managed.
Locate markings were disregarded or mechanical excavation occurred within the tolerance zone.
Excavators cannot rely solely on paperwork. They must understand what the locate information does and does not represent.
Closing Thoughts: Knowledge, Communication, and Risk Ownership
Determining responsibility for a missed utility locate requires a careful investigation of facts, roles, and decisions. However, one pattern appears consistently across damage cases. Failures occur when roles are misunderstood and limitations are not managed.
Effective damage prevention depends on:
Clear communication between all parties
Proper documentation of limitations
A shared understanding of responsibilities
Education that goes beyond simply “getting locates”
Whether you are an excavator, private landowner, or locator, understanding your role in the locate process is essential to owning risk and protecting people, property, and infrastructure.
For those seeking a deeper understanding of public and private locate processes, roles, and limitations, Utility Infrastructure Awareness training was developed to address these gaps and help ensure buried facilities are properly identified and respected before ground disturbance begins.
If you have questions, feedback, or experiences you would like to share, you can reach me at info@ownyoursafety.com.
Safe digging.