In the earlier days of my career, after the apprenticeship placements with the pole and hole gangs1*, I spent some time in the NE Network Management Centre and one of our all to often responsibilities was rerouting telephone and television traffic around violent unplanned disconnections made by a variety of plant operators2, many of whom were working for or on behalf of other utilities. And that in spite of BT running (and publicising) a Dial before you dig service.
The best violent unplanned disconnection I help reroute around remains that done by a householder from the comfort of his own cellar. He managed to drill3 through his cellar wall4, the gas main, the main Leeds to Manchester coaxial route and the water main. The water ingress caused him to stop, which was a good thing because a small few centimetres beyond the end of his drill bit was the electricity main! That one took a lot of sorting out, because gas had to be made safe before anyone else was allowed in, then obviously water, and finally after that lot had mucked everything up 10 fold, us with our specialist coaxial jointer
1. Also known as the Overhead gangs and underground gangs. Four weeks with each of these gangs for the mostly middle class 16yo apprentices was a bit of a baptism of fire to the working life.
2. Back hoes, lots of back hoes, but pile drivers could do an impressive amount of damage.
3. He’d hired a GBFO Kango drill from a local plant hire firm, especially for the job in hand
4. Which was drilling a 1½” hole in his outside wall so that the water board could install a new water main
