The following describes the incident/damage reports and how to enter and edit the reports.
Search for an Existing Incident
To search for an incident or damage report, select the Enter a New General Public Report option from the TDRF Main Menu. The Texas Damage Reports search screen is displayed. There are several ways to search:
- In the Texas Damage Reports search screen, enter the Incident Date, select the County in which the incident occurred, and click the Submit button. The system displays the Incidents Reported screen.
- If there are incidents reported for the date and County entered, the system lists them, along with each report that has been filed for that incident. The report column indicates the number of reports submitted for each incident.
- If there are no incidents displayed, this incident has not been reported.
- There may be incidents listed for that date and County. If you are not sure that any of them are the incident you are reporting, click the link under Reports and the system displays the Report Type (Public, Excavator, or Operator) and the name of the person reporting the incident below the report information. You can click on the Report Type link to view the report. (To return to the incident list from the report page, select the list tab at the top of the page.)
Click on the Incident Number link to see the Incident Detail page. This page contains all of the location information for the incident. It also has a New Damage Report button. Use this button to access the pages to file a new report for that incident.
- If you know the Incident Number for the incident, enter that and click the Submit button. The system displays the Incident Detail page.
- If you have already started an incident report, but saved and left the application before it was completed, the system provided you with a Document Key to use to retrieve that report. Enter the Document Key and click the Retrieve Report button. The system displays the report.
File An Incident/Damage Report
If you searched but could not locate the incident you are reporting, click on the New Incident/Damage Report button in the Incidents Reported screen to file a new incident report.
If you located an incident that matches the one you are reporting, click the New Damage Report button that corresponds to it and file a new report for that incident.
After clicking either of the two New Report buttons, the system displays the Third Party Damage Report form for the general public.
All fields designated by an asterisk (*) are optional data fields.
- The Incident Information is all that is required to initiate a report. This is information about the location of the incident.
- Enter City, Street Number and Street Name, and/or Nearest Intersection.
- Next, enter the Right of Way Where Incident Occurred. Latitude and Longitude are optional. Note: If right of way where incident occurred is not entered, the system displays an error message after submitting the report, but you are not able to update this field without using the Document Key provided by the system.)
- If an existing incident was selected, the location information is already displayed. You must enter the Right of Way Where Incident Occurred.
You may use the Google Map that is displayed below the Incident Information section to locate the incident. Click here for instructions.
- Also, for an existing incident, the report page contains a View Incident on Map button that allows you to view a Google map. A red pointer on the map shows the exact location of the incident. You cannot edit the map location.
- If this is a new incident, click the Continue button. The system redisplays the report page with the Incident Information populated and the the rest of the fields are available for entry. The Continue button becomes Edit Incident. If you need to edit the Incident Information, click this button to make the data editable and make any changes necessary, the click Continue again. If you are filing a report on an existing incident, the full page is already displayed for data entry.
- Next, enter the Contact Information.
- Click the Search/Change Contact button. The system displays the Public Information screen in which to search for a Public contact that is on file or create a new public contact.
- Use the Public Search section at the top of the Public Information page to search for an existing contact. Enter at least the City and State and click Search. (If you know the Company name, enter that.) The system returns a list at the bottom of the page that contains all excavators in the system that match the criteria entered. If the excavator contact is listed, select the radio button to the right and click the Select button. The system populates the Public Detail portion of the page with the contact information.
- If the contact name is not listed, you must create a new contact. To create a new contact, enter all of the required information and click Create. The system redisplays the screen with that new contact information. The Create button is changed to Update for editing purposes . Note: The Third Party Damage System is connected to a USPS database of valid postal addresses. If you enter an invalid address, a message is displayed at the top of the page.
- The system also adds a New Contact button to the Excavator Search portion of the page. This clears the Excavator Detail section so that you can add another new contact to the system. Note: The contact information that is currently populated in the Excavator Detail portion of the screen will be returned to Page One of the form when you click Return to Form.
- Once you have either selected an existing contact or created a new one, click the Return to Report button. The report returns with the contact information displayed in the Contact Information section of the page.
- You can edit the information for an existing contact. When the information is displayed in the screen, update the data and click the Update Contact button.
- Continue entering the rest of the report information. For Description of Damage, select Yes or No to the question 'Was there damage to a pipeline facility?'.
- Enter Underground Pipeline Information.
- Select the Type of Underground Pipeline Facility Affected.
- Enter (in feet and inches) the depth of the damaged pipeline facility.
- Select the Type of Product Transported.
- Description of Root Cause is required. Select a Possible Cause from the dropdown.
- If "Other" was selected as the Possible Cause, an explanation is required.
- If you have more information regarding the incident, enter that in optional Additional Comments field.
- Click the Save Report button. When you save, the system displays the page and provides a Document Key at the top so that you can leave and return at another time to complete the report. PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF THE DOCUMENT KEY. YOU WILL NEED TO ENTER THIS KEY TO ACCESS YOUR WORK IN-PROGRESS. WITHOUT THIS KEY, YOU WILL NEED TO RE-ENTER ALL INFORMATION.
When you save, the system checks for errors and displays error messages at the top of the page that inform you of any missing or invalid data.
- You may review the report before submitting it. Use the Page One, Page Two, and Page Three tabs to go back through the report and check for accuracy.
- When you are satisfied with the report, click the Submit Completed Report button to submit the report to the RRC. The system submits the report and displays the Report Confirmation page. The page contains a link to a PDF document that is to be used as a confirmation of receipt of your Damage Report. It contains all the information that was entered for the damage report. Print this report for your records.
- After you have viewed and/or printed your Confirmation Report, click the Press Button When Finished button. The system displays the menu page to enter a new report.
Use a Map to Locate an Incident
The Incident Information for a report can either be entered by filling in the required fields or by using the Google map that is required. The map feature can only be used when filing the first report for an incident.
The map utilizes the standard Google map navigation and viewing tools (zooming in and out and moving directionally). Google allows you to view the map in Map format, as a satellite image, or as a hybrid (a satellite image overlaid with map details).
To position the incident location by using the map feature:
- Move the red pointer to the position on the map where the incident occurred.
- Click the Set Incident to Map button. The system redisplays the page with the location information at the top set to the spot on the map to which you moved the red pointer. (Location information will be either the exact address or the nearest intersection.) Note: If you move the pointer to a location that does not correspond to an actual address, the system will display a message asking you to move the pointer to an exact address location on the map.
- Use the Reset Incident Data button to set the map and location information to the original locations.
- Click the Clear Incident Data button to clear the incident information completely and start over.
You can reset the red pointer on the map to another location:
- Enter the correct address, nearest intersection and longitude and latitude (if you know it).
- Click the Set Map from Incident button. The red pointer on the map will move to the exact location you entered in the fields above.
- Use the Reset Incident Data button to set the map and location information to the original locations.
- Click the Clear Incident Data button to clear the incident information completely and start over.
Use the Close Map button to remove the map from that page.
If you are filing a report for an existing incident, the Incident Information section of the report contains the View Incident On Map button. Use this view a map of the location of the incident. You cannot change the incident location.
Edit or Complete a Saved Damage Report
To finish an incomplete damage report or edit a report, go to the Texas Damage Reports Search screen. Note: You cannot edit a report that has already been submitted to the RRC.
- Enter your Document Key that was provided when you saved the report and then click the Retrieve Report button. The system redisplays the report with all fields editable.
- Continue with the report as described.
Header Information
When you initiate an incident/damage report, the system displays a header that is updated with report information as each page of the report is saved. This information includes:
- The report Reference Number (this is assigned by the system after the first "save").
- Date of Incident (the date you entered on the search screen).
- Created Date (the date you created the report).
- Submitted Date (the date the report was submitted to the RRC).
- Status (this will be Work in Progress until it is submitted to the RRC).
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