Welding accident

SOURCE: OSHA

Engulfment accident

A temporary worker was fatally injured after falling through a sugar hopper and becoming engulfed by sugar. The fatality occurred in a marine cargo warehouse operation, where bulk
granulated sugar from ships is transported to the warehouse for storage, bagging, and distribution. Sugar clumps often prevented the sugar from flowing freely through a hopper onto a conveyor
belt during bagging. Two or three times per shift, workers would manually break up the clumps. This fatal incident occurred when the temporary worker was breaking up sugar clumps with a pole/
shovel while standing on a hardened sugar bridge at the top of the hopper. The sugar bridge collapsed. As the worker fell to the bottom of the hopper, his legs went through the chute where
he was engulfed by sugar and suffocated.
SOURCE: OSHA

Fatal accident

Three employees were working on a leaking crude oil flow line that connected a production well to its tank battery. They dug a trench to access the leaking flow line and cut out a 6-ft. long section from the pipe using a cold cutter. Two of the employees attempted to thread the cut on the flow line with a manual pipe threading machine (threader) but the dies on the threader were dull. Therefore, the workers asked the office to have new dies for the machine delivered to the site. Instead of installing the new dies in the manual pipe threader that was used earlier, the dies were installed in an electric pipe threader. Two of the employees got in the trench with the electric pipe threader and started to thread the exposed pipe when flammable vapors were ignited by the electric pipe threader. As a result, a flash fire engulfed the trench in flames. The third employee discharged two fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire. The two employees that were in the trench were hospitalized with second and third-degree burns to their arms, neck and faces. One of these employees died at the hospital. The other burned employee was hospitalized and released at a later date.
SOURCE: OSHA

Off the shelf anti-vibration system | Engineer Live

Off the shelf anti-vibration system | Engineer Live

Incident due to failure of ball check valve in sight glass

https://www.bsee.gov/sites/bsee.gov/files/safety-bulletin-007.pdf

Happy New Year!

Vacuum incident

Condensate tank implosion due to vacuum

Acid reaction with iron sulphide cause H2S release

Acid reaction with iron sulphide cause H2S release

Steam hose failure burns worker

Steam hose failure burns worker

Instrument tubing failure incident

http://www.energysafetycanada.com/files/safety-alerts/sa11_10.pdf

Accident during leak test

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/accidentsearch.accident_detail?id=201363413

Courtesy: OSHA

JR gestures | The Japan Times

JR gestures | The Japan Times: Dear Alice, Until recently I lived in Tokyo and commuted on the JR Chuo Sobu Line from Kameido Station. I made it a practice to ride in the last compartmen

Safety And Reliability: Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Safety And Reliability: Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Maintenance and reliability efforts are critically important in today’s industrial environment where increasingly complex and interdependent equipment are utilized.

Another Bhopal Anniversary.....

Time flies, but for the people who died a gruesome death on 2nd/3rd night, 1984, time was irrelevant. Today, we are in the cusp of technological innovations in process safety management, but the moot point is....can technology alone prevent disasters? Its people who make decisions, decisions that may compromise process safety and that could lead to a loss of containment incident. I am always of the view that technology can only be an enabler, if properly used.
There is a welcome change in India. Increasingly, boards of directors of chemical companies are focusing not only on occupational health and safety, but also on process safety. This is a welcome change. Lets pledge not to have another Bhopal again.

Choke clearing incident

A senior maintenance member of a two-man crew, and another employee were working from an elevated work platform. The platform was mounted on the back of a trailer, which was mounted to an asphalt tank. The employees had begun bypassing the normal asphalt storage tank to prepare for its five-year to seven-year cleaning. They placed a bypass valve in position to route the asphalt from the permanent tank to the temporary, trailer-mounted tank. Most of the asphalt piping was heated with a steam jacket encircling the pipes. However, the piping that ran from the bypass valve to the temporary tank was encircled with tubing that was heated by steam. The employees complained that the steam tubing, also referred to as steam tracing, was not wrapped tight enough, thereby preventing the pipe from getting hot enough to turn the hardened asphalt back to its liquid (melted) state. The employees then attempted to repair the clogged pipe. As was reported to be the normal practice, they went to the end of the asphalt piping outlet and began heating the last bend of the piping with a propane torch. The piping outlet was located directly over the top of the manhole opening of the heated asphalt tank. The tank was reported to be 300 degrees to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, at that time. During the site visit, approximately five hours later, the tank temperature gauge read approximately 260 degrees Fahrenheit. After an undetermined amount of time that the employees were using the propane torch to heat the piping, an explosion occurred in the asphalt tank. A witness described the explosion as a flame which shot 30 feet above the manhole cover and quickly descended back into the tank. This witness also stated that he could no longer observe the employees standing on the platform. Employee #1 remained on the platform and suffered asphalt burns and fractures to his face, where an item impacted it during the explosion. Employee #2 fell from the work platform, approximately 9 feet 5 inches to the concrete surface. Employee #2 suffered asphalt burns to his body and face, in addition to a hip fracture. A radio call for emergency response was broadcast throughout the company. The company Emergency Response Team doused the flames and provided initial first aid to Employees #1 and Employee #2. Both employees were transported to the hospital.
Source:OSHA

Chloride induced stress corrosion cracking

Chloride induced stress corrosion cracking

Worker struck by hazardous energy

Worker struck by hazardous energy

Lessons from an explosion in a Laboratory

Lessons from an explosion in a Laboratory

FRP tank fire due to static electricity

FRP tank fire due to static electricity

Minimizing Fire and Explosion Hazards in dusty systems

Minimizing Fire and Explosion Hazards in Dusty Systems: Having honest conversations about material handling hazards allow risks to be properly addressed, thereby reducing fire and explosion threats.

Can a water pump explode?

Can a water pump explode?

12 Tips for Centrifugal Pump Safety

12 Tips for Centrifugal Pump Safety: Centrifugal pumps are used in industrial settings, and there are several steps that should be followed to ensure safe and efficient pump operation.