That auger mishap on a job site in Phoenix made me swap to digital grade control

I was running a crew doing utility trenches last August, and one of the guys got his hand pulled into an auger when the ground shifted. The old GPS unit on the machine was off by nearly 3 inches, and we had no backup. Two fingers almost lost because the seat-of-the-pants method failed. Now I refuse to start a dig without a digital readout that checks grade every 30 seconds. Has anyone else pushed back on a foreman who says the old analog stuff is fine?

3 comments

3 Comments

burns.richard26d ago

Did you bring up OSHA stats or just the close call?

elizabeth_bailey268d ago

Analog stuff is fine until someone loses a finger, then suddenly it's a big deal. But let's be real, how often is the ground actually going to shift like that? Most days you're just digging the same flat trench you've done a thousand times. The real problem is people not paying attention, not the tool. Digital grade control won't save you if the operator is texting his girlfriend instead of watching the screen. Though I get it, the close call makes you paranoid.

simon_sanchez5826d ago

@burns.richard I get why you'd bring up the stats, but those numbers don't mean much when a foreman is set in his ways. The real clincher for me was walking him through the math on how many re-dos we were actually paying for with the old analog setup. Hard to argue with a spreadsheet showing you're burning a day's wage on bad grade corrections.