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An Act Relative to the Safety and Protection of Utility Work and Construction Sites
Bill Summary for An Act Relative to the Safety and Protection of Utility Work and Construction Sites
Lead Sponsors: Senator James Timilty and Representative Joseph Driscoll
General Law Affected: Chapters 164, 166 and 166A
Current Situation:
The practice in Massachusetts has always been to assign police detail protection to utility construction and work sites to ensure the safety of the workers performing the work for gas, electric, telecommunications, and cable television companies. However, in 2008 new regulations promulgated by the Commonwealth opened the door for removing police officers from road construction sites and replacing them with flaggers. There is currently no state law that mandates that police details be used to protect the health and safety of utility workers. To avoid confusion and to ensure that utility companies know that they must provide police detail protection to their workers there must be a state law enacted mandating such protection.
The Problem:
Because police details have been provided simply as a matter of historic practice and precedent, but are not guaranteed by law, utility workers may be left vulnerable if utility companies seek to remove police details from their construction and work sites. When the Commonwealth allowed for flaggers on certain road construction projects, thereby overriding current practices of using police details, it became necessary for the Commonwealth to enact a law for the safety and protection of utility workers. The high voltage, heights, gas, work in underground manholes, and other hazardous conditions under which utility workers must function demand that police officers be present to ensure their safety and protection.
What This Bill Does:
Mandates that gas, electric, telecommunications, cable television, and other public utility companies use police officer details for the safety and protection of utility workers on construction and work sites.
Police details provide a level of safety that is necessary for utility workers to perform their job. Because of the extreme hazards involved with utility work and construction sites, it is vital that police officers be present to ensure their safety and allow for maximum concentration of the utility workers on the dangerous task at hand.
What This Bill Does Not Do:
This bill does not overturn, override, address or in any way seek to reverse the 2008 regulations that were promulgated regarding police details and flaggers on road construction sites.
The Bottom Line:
The stories of police officers pulling workers out of manholes, protecting their oxygen supplies, arresting would-be assaulters and criminals, and otherwise ensuring the safety of utility workers, are countless. Because there is no state law ensuring these police details on utility construction and work sites, and recent regulations regarding police details on other construction sites have highlighted that void in state law, the Commonwealth must put a law in effect in order to ensure the safety and well-being of utility workers on these most dangerous utility construction and work sites.
