I do not think you can blame UKPN for that one. This looks like contractors digging a hole and cutting into the wrong pipe.
Going back to retrieve the drill or whatever it was is what in Yes Minster terms would have been called 'a brave decision' . Meaning damn stupid, but then folk are not always rational under stress, especially if this is not something they were expecting or had trained for, and I doubt it was.
Still the good very news is that no one seems to have been badly hurt anyway.
The 'appliance' looks like a portable generator, probably supplying power to an angle grinder or/and an inspection lamp so that the workmen could see the pipe they were hacking into..... If they were digging that deep they were very lucky not to hit something of a higher voltage !
