NTSB Chair Rips PG&E Blunders On San Bruno Blast
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS / AP) -- The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Pacific Gas & Electric Company's record-keeping blunders leading up to the San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion demonstrated a need for stepped up industry safety.
Deborah Hersman said her investigators learned after the Sept. 9 explosion that PG&E was clueless about the characteristics of the 30-inch pipeline.
The explosion and fire killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.
Hersman told the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board audience on Wednesday that PG&E still could not find basic records on the manufacture and 1956 installation of the pipe.
For more than a half-century, Hersman said the utility's decisions on inspections, operating pressures and risk management were based on facts that were just plain wrong.
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