Sorry to keep beating what's probably a dead horse - but I'm with soyons-expositifs on this.... aside from hitting a gas line, it would have been just as easy to have hit a certain rather thick 3 conductor aluminum cable. Assuming he survived that, I don't even want to guess at the cost of fixing it, since splicing isn't an option. Since the power company owns everything up to the meter... and I doubt they'd be interested in using his backhoe for liability reasons, I can easily see the bill in the $1500 - $2000 range, plus whatever fine the power company felt like handing out that day, and possibly plus the cost of a new bucket. All I have to compare it to is the cost of running a new water or sewer line to your house, which usually runs upwards of $7500; of course in that instance you are paying a plumber, not a utility.
And it could have been even worse than that..... high voltage lines run underground (and not all that deep) in the easement on the edge of my property. I wouldn't go anywhere near that area with even a shovel, whether it was marked or not.
I'm not trying to beat up on the guy - just pointing out that he should put aside the cost for a moment and be glad he's still alive; whatever the cost came out to be - I consider him to be very fortunate.
Having said all that, I hope things worked out for him OK.
