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The Kansas City area has seen multiple gas line strikes from contractors installing fiber broadband this year. The deadliest happened in April in Lexington, Missouri.
The explosion killed a five-year-old boy and critically injured his 10-year-old sister and father.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed a new bill into law on Monday hoping to prevent a devastating incident like that from happening again. Contractors and utility companies now have to follow the Common Ground Alliances best practices when digging underground.
The legislation officially adds more accountability measures into law for companies, contractors and anyone else digging underground. Those who don't follow the best practices could be found liable with more severe consequences.
Missouri 811 received 1,808,620 locate [dig] requests from January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. 21,155 of those requests ended in damage reports with 3,208 being identified as gas line damage.
"A lot of the mistakes are made because of [the project's] expediency," executive director Randy Norden said. "The time is against the clock and things need to get done."
Out of the 3,208 gas line strikes in the last 18 months, incidents in Kansas City, Missouri and Lexington caught the attention of lawmakers. Senate Bill 133 was initially introduced two years ago, but was passed over the finish line following several gas line damage incidents that caused fatalities and injuries.
"That's a big step forward for Missouri," Common Ground Alliance CEO and president Sarah Lyle said. "We know that states that follow the best practices and adopt the best practices have better damage prevention outcomes."
The Missouri Senate passed the bill which imposes stricter regulations just one day after five-year-old Alistair Lamb was killed in a house explosion in Lexington. NTSB investigators revealed Liberty Utilities failed to mark a natural gas line that fiber optic contractors hit just hours before the house exploded.
"We've yet to see still why it was failed to be marked," Norden said. "Was it negligence?"
The new law clears up confusion about liability. If the line isn't properly marked, it's on the company who owns the line. Contractors and excavators now have to dig within 21 days of the line being marked, or they have to restart that portion of the project to promote best safety practices. Any new lines installed underground also have to include a GIS tracking device that can be detected above the surface.
However, there's no clear enforcement on the new legislation before any strikes occur.
"Unless somebody files a complain and the Attorney General follows up on it, there's really no enforcement except for civil courts," Norden said. "There will be no such thing as best practices police that's standing around all excavations making sure everybody is doing that."
The legislation also adds excavators and contractors onto the Missouri 811 board. The agency is launching a new education campaign for everyone involved in the digging process.
"The administration of that will probably bring some level of greater interest in compliance with best practices knowing that [violations] could come back and bring harm," Norden said.
Excavators in the Lexington incident and several others in the Kansas City metro were installing fiber broadband. Advocates with Missouri 811 and Common Ground Alliance explained they've noticed an increase with gas line strikes in fiber installations, yet Missouri 811 reports the yearly broadband work has stayed consisted around 17% of the state's total dig ups.
"That is really where the best practices will come in to help identify where there are actions of negligence," Norden said.
Missouri is now one of the leading states establishing uniform guidelines for all contractors. The Common Ground Alliance is working on establishing federal digging regulations.
"A lot of times you will have third party contractors in from different states, so the more uniform and routine we can make [guidelines], the better off we're going to be as an industry because then you don't have to learn 50 sets of laws," Lyle said. "That puts us one step closer to consistency and helps reduce that chance of error."
The new law doesn't just apply to companies, homeowners have to follow the best practices, too.
"I think it's going to increase the safety for Missourians significantly," Lyle said.
