Road safety intiatives by Corporates

As per a TOI report dated 23.4.17, 410 people died every day last year on the roads of India. It is heartening to know that more and more Corporates in India are emphasizing on road safety. Two such initiatives that I came across, are given below

India Glycols Limited Road Safety

HP lubricants - roads that honk


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LPG road tanker accident

Thanks to M. Sujith for sending news about a LPG road tanker accident that reportedly has killed 2 persons in Kerala. Read about it in this link.
I hope the lessons learnt are shared publicly.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Fire in chemical tanker threatened methanol tanks

A chemical/palm oil tanker Bunga Alpinia caught fire, while berthed alongside at Petronas Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd terminal in Labuan, Malaysia on the morning of 26th July. Apparently the tanker was discharging cargo when fire on board started from technical breakdown. Though the news article says the cargo was LNG, it was methanol. A lightning strike apparently was the cause of the fire.
There are a number of pictures in this link about the fire and fire fighting operations. See how close the burning tanker was to the onshore tanks containing methanol. They were lucky!

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Process Safety and Road Safety

Everyday, a large number of tankers carrying hazardous chemicals traverse across India's roads. Chemical manufacturers and suppliers do take all required precautions during the transportation. GPS systems are used for tracking vehicles from a central control room. But the safety sense of other road users need to improve a lot. An article in Livemint mentions the abysmal  state of road safety in India. The article mentions that "The number of deaths (in road accidents) is equal to three jets crashing every day (410 human beings), but since aircraft aren’t involved, they don’t make headlines. Annually about 150,000 people die every year due to road accidents, and about 400,000 people get maimed, the cost of which is about Rs. 1 trillion".

Read the article in this link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Fire in Chemical Tanker

A fire has been reported in a chemical tanker in Mumbai. It appears that toluene was unloaded and "stripping" operations were on when the fire occurred.
Read about it in this link.
UPDATE: An explosion has occurred in the same vessel reportedly injuring 7 petrsonnel, one critically. Read about it in this link.

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Vehicles and process safety

An incident where a car hit a chemical storage tote has been reported. Ensure you have identified all possible points of impact of vehicles. Piperacks, storage tanks, culverts, loading/unloading stations are all areas which you should study for a possible vehicle collision. I had been to a large refinery which had expanded in the space available. (There was a huge space deficit). Their staff bus had to cut across two units, along a narrow culvert carrying hydrocarbon pipelines. Its a disaster waiting to happen.
Read about the car accident in this link
 

Diesel tankers accident

The Telegraph reports that "Fifteen tankers loaded with fuel were gutted and more than 10 lakh litres of diesel burnt when a goods train carrying them jumped tracks in Chanabana on the Bihar-Bengal border this morning.The inferno caused the tracks to melt, leading to disruption in train services on the Aluabari-NJP route.The heat from the burning fuel also scorched to death a villager, whose body was found after the flames were doused. Paddy on 500 acres along the tracks have been burnt.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said the goods train, with 51 tankers and each of them filled with 70,000 litres of diesel from the Numaligarh Refineries Limited, was on its way to Jamshedpur from Maligaon in Assam. 

Read the report (with photos) in this link.

Transportation of hazardous cargo - How ready are you?

As India's highways develop rapidly, more and more transportation of hazardous chemicals take place on our highways. Many of you will agree that there is still a lot more to do to improve the safety while transporting hazardous cargo. 35 years ago, in the US, there was an accident involving a road tanker carrying liquid ammonia, which reportedly killed 7 persons. The cause of the accident was reported to be speeding, sloshing of the partially filled tanker, and inadequately designed guard rails. The lessons learnt from that accident are still valid today. A blog post mentions the following about the reasons for the accident:

• "The truck was driving at or near 53.6 mph when it took the curve taking it from the Loop to the Southwest Freeway. We’ll probably never know why Schmidt was speeding when he exited the Loop.
• Back then, barrier systems on routes that carry hazardous materials were not capable of redirecting vehicles that transport dangerous materials. The bridge rail at that stretch of road was more equipped to contain automobiles than trucks carrying hazardous cargo.
• The ramp where the crash occurred opened in 1963.
• Schmidt, who had been employed by Transportation Co. of Texas since 1975, had driven commercial vehicles since 1969. He had left Corpus Christi between 5 and 5:30 a.m. for the Tenneco plant and had made at least 10 trips to Houston carrying liquid loads.
• It’s said that this crash led to restrictions on the transportation of hazardous cargo through Houston, but that’s not necessarily the case. According to the NTSB report, the city had been using Loop 610 as a hazardous materials route since 1970."

Read about it in this link.

Bromine leak affects many

An incident where bromine leaking from glass bottles has been reported at a chemical unit in South India. Many people were reported to be affected. Apparently the bromine leaked from glass bottles kept in the stores. If you are handling large quantities of Bromine it is always safer to use ISO containers instead of bottles. Of course this will involve costs but it is worth it. The European Bromine transportation safety forum has good details on how to handle emergencies with bromine including ISO containers. See this link for details.
Read more about the accident in these links:
Link 1
Link 2
News video
MSDS of bromine

New pipeline safety legislation in USA - Also needed in India?

An article mentions the following:

"Two US senators have introduced legislation to enhance pipeline safety.

The US has approximately 2.5 million miles of pipelines that transport oil, natural gas and hazardous liquids.  These pipelines are an integral component of the US economy and energy supply, and are generally considered a safer mode of transportation than other options for moving gas and liquids. 
Since 2006, there have been approximately 40 pipeline incidents each year that resulted in a fatality or injury.  Last September, a natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, Calif., and quickly engulfed nearby homes in fire. The explosion, and subsequent fire, led to the death of eight people, and destroyed or damaged over 150 residences.
 The legislation introduced by Senators Lautenberg and Rockefeller would help mitigate pipeline risks through a number of measures.  The legislation would reauthorize and strengthen the authority of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) through fiscal year 2014. 
Specifically, the “Pipeline Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2011” includes provisions that would:

• Increase civil penalties for violators of pipeline regulations and add civil penalties for obstructing investigations;
• Expand excess flow valve requirements to include multi-family buildings and small commercial facilities;
• Eliminate exemptions and require all local and state government agencies, and their contractors, to notify “One-Call” notification centers before digging;
• Require the installation of automatic or remote-controlled shut-off valves on new transmission pipelines;Require the Secretary of Transportation to establish time limits on accident and leak notification by pipeline operators to local and state government officials and emergency responders;
• Require the Secretary of Transportation to evaluate whether integrity management system requirements should be expanded beyond currently defined high consequence areas and establish regulations as appropriate;
• Make pipeline information, inspections, and standards available to the public on the PHMSA’s web site
• Authorize additional pipeline inspectors and pipeline safety support employees, through a phased-in increase over the next four years;
• Allow PHMSA to recover costs for oversight of major pipeline design and construction projects; and
• Authorize appropriations for PHMSA for fiscal years 2011 through 2014."

With the natural gas pipeline network in India expanding in a big way, we should keep the above in mind.

Read the article in this link.

Sulphuric acid tanker leak kills a woman

Thanks to Abhay Gujar for sending this info. A sulphuric acid road tanker that broke down in Jajmau area was being shifted by a crane when it reportedly got damaged and sulphuric acid got into sewers. The fumes entered a bathroom where a woman was killed. The safety of road transportation of chemicals is a big issue in India, with a number of acid tankers plying the roads. Some of them are not in road worthy condition. The onus is on both the supplier and receiver to ensure that safety rules for transport of hazardous cargo are followed to avoid such tragic deaths.

Read the article in this link.

Accident to truck carrying hydrogen cylinders

Thanks to Abhay Gujar for sending this information - A truck carrying 180 hydrogen cylinders overturned due to a burst tyre in an highway (NH-8) resulting in the drivers cabin catching fire. Luckily, the cylinders did not explode. Now, the motor vehicle rules clearly specify the rules for dangerous cargo, including fitness of the vehicle carrying it. If you are transporting cylinders through trucks, ensure that the vehicle is in roadworthy condition. Imagine what would have happened if all the 180 cylinders overheated and burst!
The local news article link is attached.

Accidents during transportation of Hazardous Chemicals - learning from NTSB

On12.1.2010, a 55 year old woman died when a chlorine cylinder that was being transported in a mini lorry, reportedly "exploded" at Thirumullaivoyal, near Chennai.
The newspaper photo depicts a mangled mini lorry with remnants of the cylinder that "exploded". I am sure that the investigation will be carried out. But what about the disclosure of the results of the investigation? We must learn from the National Transportation Safety Board of the USA who investigate transportation incidents. They investigate incidents involving aviation, road transport, pipeline and hazardous materials,marine, rail transport etc.Their investigators are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The results of investigations are posted on their website www.ntsb.gov. Why don't we learn from them? Information shared about the lessons learnt help to prevent another similar incident from happening and lives can be saved.
Another aspect of process safety that has been brought out by the incident is that it was reported that the chlorine was being transported for usage as a disinfectant. Today there are less hazardous alternatives to chlorine for the purpose of disinfection of water. The concept of inherent safety proposed originally by Dr Trevor Kletz propounds exactly this.