Excavators in Texas have damaged underground pipelines more than 4,800 times since the beginning of 2026, frequently triggering highly explosive natural gas leaks, according to a KERA News analysis of Railroad Commission of Texas incident data. More than 1,000 of those strikes occurred in just four North Texas counties — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton.

The figures surfaced in the aftermath of a catastrophic explosion that leveled an Oak Cliff apartment complex in Dallas on May 28, 2026, killing three people and injuring several others. Initial reports link the blast to a natural gas line damaged during soil-testing work at the site. The grim reality is that many of these pipeline strikes — and the deadly explosions that can follow — are entirely preventable.

This article breaks down what the new Railroad Commission data reveals about Texas’s pipeline-strike problem, why the state’s “call before you dig” law so often goes ignored, and what legal options exist for families and property owners harmed when an excavation goes catastrophically wrong.

The Oak Cliff Explosion and a Statewide Pattern

A Third of Excavators Never Called

State law is unambiguous. The Underground Facility Damage Prevention and Safety Act — better known as the “call before you dig” law — requires excavators to notify Texas’s One-Call Notification Center, reachable by dialing 811, at least 48 hours before breaking ground, so that operators can mark buried utilities free of charge. The requirement applies to professional contractors and homeowners alike, down to projects as small as installing a mailbox or planting a tree.

Yet Railroad Commission records examined by KERA show the law is widely ignored. Statewide, roughly a third of the excavators who struck a pipeline in 2026 had not called in before digging. In the Dallas–Fort Worth area, 177 of the more than 1,000 reported strikes this year involved diggers who never notified the state. And even when crews follow the rules, mismarked or unmarked service lines — the smaller pipes running to individual homes and businesses — can still be hit.

Why Pipeline Strikes Keep Happening

Accidental pipeline damage in Texas tends to trace back to one of two failures. The first is locating: pipes buried years — sometimes decades — ago can be difficult to pinpoint, and old service lines may have few if any accurate records showing where they run. Even when an excavator does everything right, a line marked at the wrong depth or location can still be struck. In one January 2026 incident in Irving, a worker scraped down roughly a foot and heard a loud hissing — the line had been potholed and located, but its flags incorrectly placed it at a depth of four feet.

The second failure is simpler — crews dig without calling at all. Industry groups and the Railroad Commission have spent years trying to make notification easier, but compliance remains uneven. Commission data shows the number of incidents spiked in 2022 and has stayed historically high, with the rate of strikes per 1,000 locates climbing since then.

The Human Cost of a Missed Phone Call

The consequences are not abstract. The National Conference of State Legislatures has called excavation damage one of the leading causes of harm to underground infrastructure. From 2005 through 2016, it counted 875 major pipeline incidents caused by excavation damage nationwide — resulting in 40 deaths, 166 hospitalizations, and more than $322 million in property damage.

Texas has seen the pattern repeat. A 2018 Dallas explosion that killed a 12-year-old girl was ultimately traced to a gas main damaged during a sewer-replacement project 23 years earlier. More recently, National Transportation Safety Board investigators have opened probes into excavation-linked blasts in Missouri and California. After each tragedy, regulators and lawmakers push for stronger oversight — but the strikes keep coming.

Your Rights After a Pipeline Explosion or Gas Leak

When a pipeline strike leads to an explosion, fire, or toxic release, the people harmed are rarely the ones who made the mistake. Victims are often residents, neighbors, bystanders, or workers who had no control over the excavation. Texas law gives them avenues to recover — but those claims can be complex, because liability may be spread across several parties.

Potentially responsible parties can include the excavation contractor that struck the line, the company that performed (or failed to perform) the utility locating, the pipeline operator responsible for maintaining and accurately marking its lines, and the property owners or developers who commissioned the work. Determining who is at fault requires preserving evidence quickly — incident reports, 811 tickets, locating records, and the equipment itself.

These cases often involve overlapping bodies of law: negligence, premises liability, product liability where defective equipment or materials are involved, and the statutory duties imposed by the “call before you dig” framework. Insurance carriers and corporate defendants typically begin building their defense within hours of an incident, which is why injured people and grieving families benefit from having their own advocate early.

If you or a loved one has been injured — or a family member killed — in a natural gas explosion or pipeline incident, it is critical to act before evidence disappears. An experienced personal injury and wrongful death firm can investigate the cause, identify every liable party, and protect your right to full compensation.