In February 2017, three contractors were fatally injured and seven contractors sustained injuries in an explosion at the Packaging Corporation of America facility in DeRidder, LA. The fatally injured contractors were conducting hot work activities near a tank which contained a flammable atmosphere which exploded. This incident has many similarities with other fatal accidents investigated […]

Over the last 7 years our consultants have worked with more than 70 companies in 20 different countries to build process safety leadership capability. Our conclusion from that training is that whilst many leaders leave the course committed to improve their process safety performance they and their organisations still lack the necessary detailed understanding of […]

The issue of who is responsible for managing process safety lies at the heart of many accidents. In many organisations process safety is seen as being simply the responsibility of the process safety department or technical safety engineers. This means that leadership and management are not engaged in managing process safety and it is this […]

This organisation produces investigation reports and in some cases these are supported by videos. An accident investigation report and video which illustrates the resources available is the Lac-Megantic crude oil train derailment and fire that occurred in 2013. Almost all of the 63 derailed tank cars were damaged, and many had large breaches. About six […]

We are often asked in our training as to whether individuals as well as companies can be prosecuted by the UK Health and Safety Executive and to provide examples of these individual prosecutions. There were a number of such prosecutions in September 2017 clearly illustrating that in the event of a serious process safety accident […]

The CSB have issued a safety bulletin and an animated video detailing the circumstances surrounding a fire at Exxon Mobil’s Baton Rouge Refinery. The video graphically details the danger of having items of equipment that look the same as other items of equipment but have to operated and maintained in subtly different ways. This is […]

Interest in our case studies has encouraged us to produce more.  As an example, we have provided a case study to download on our web site. The case studies exemplify that the root causes of process safety incidents are failures in the process safety management system. They provide specific examples of these failures in the […]

To emphasise the importance of effective pressure relief systems we draw your attention to the CSB investigation report into the June 13, 2013 Williams Olefin Plant Explosion and Fire. The incident occurred during non routine operational activities that introduced heat into an offline reboiler that was isolated from its pressure relief device. The overpressure caused […]

In May the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a “Factual Investigative Update” on the 3rd April 2017 catastrophic rupture of a pressure vessel at the Loy Lange Box Company that killed four people and left another in critical condition. Once again the CSB has demonstrated that it is possible to quickly publish and share […]