There was an article on Bhopal accident comparing it with that of BP oil spill. The article can be read at this LINK. The author noted about the poor response of our industry leaders to the injustice met by the victims in comparison with the active involvement of industries at USA against BP. There are many persons in responsible positions in various companies who can come under the Sec 300 of IPC and may not be knowing that they are committing such blunders.
It is essential that top management of all industries should be informed about their responsibilities under various statutes when permissions / licences are issued by concerned government authorities. e-mail is the best service available which can be utilized by regulatory agencies to send e-mails from time to time to these leaders of the organizations.
What I feel is that most of the management representatives do not know about minimum safety procedures to be ensured in their organizations under various statutes and punishment / penalties for violators. Once this is known, definitely violations will come down as nobody likes to trouble himself of attending criminal proceedings against him.
Showing posts with label BP accident. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BP accident. Show all posts
Jul 20, 2010
Jul 12, 2010
No accidents implies everything safe or something is wrong?
No accidents – Whether everything is in control or something is not identified?
It is reported that the BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion (11 deaths, 115 survivors) caused by escape of gas and oil from the well dug was preceded by seven years of work without any injury. The drilling was done and the well is to be closed. Another rig will takeover for production from the well. While BP managers assembled to congratulate the team for working without any injury, the pressurized gas gushed from the 5 km deep well and exploded.
The incident is not without early warning signs. The rubber gasket (seal to close the drill pipe tightly and shut the well) of the blowout preventer (BOP) located near the seabed, for the well got ruptured in an incident and rubber pieces were found in the mud used for holding the gas and oil within the well. A crewman accidentally forced the drill pipe by 15 ft through the BOP. But, engineers failed to analyse the cause for the presence of these rubber pieces. This shows that every major accident is preceded by a number of near misses and minor accidents. We should be able to identify, report and analyze all near misses and minor incidents however negligible they are. It appears there is pressure on the crew to complete the drilling work fast as they are already behind the schedule. This might have caused the crew to do away with the repair of critical safety systems too.
Further, the backup control system called ‘pod’ for BOP lost some of its functions. This reminds us of Murphy’s law.
The emergency drill carried out every Sunday to escape after head count was not followed after the accident. People started leaving in the available lifeboats without looking for others on the rig. This shows that whatever drills we do will go haywire and those in possession of escape vehicles will disappear instead of carrying the persons for which vehicles are intended.
It appears that safety is ignored because of the short term profits seen by the management compared to possible losses that may accrue to the organization when run without safety systems in place. The management that is responsible for allowing safety violations may not be there as they may take bonuses and leave. Once a system is violated and is in place for sometime, this wrong practice itself becomes an established system and will be considered normal. This has happened in Bhopal accident. All safety systems for MIC tanks were removed to save running costs. As there were no incidents, the management thought that they have done a wonderful job and reduced operating costs. May be, they are under pressure to show profits so that investors will be happy. Accidents do take place because public memory is short. They may be losers only for a short term and reaping increased valuation of their shares. Those affected because of the accident are limited in number and their voice is lost in the herd (of investors).
Normally when people are happy having achieved certain safety record, it will be followed with a major accident. There is no accident because we are lucky till the accident occurs. We are overconfident of our performance. We ignore the warning signals saying that everything is under control. We venture out to do something adventurous. Those who protest about violations are treated as ‘nuts’ and ‘pessimistic’. They may questioned about their integrity, commitment and chided for accepting bonuses or rise in salaries when systems are wrong as pointed out by the same persons. These persons will be blamed in all respected for pointing the violations forcing them to leave or they will be fired.
When accident occurs, people will conveniently forget everything though cautioned by few and term it as ‘one of those rare accidents which no one expected’.
It is reported that the BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion (11 deaths, 115 survivors) caused by escape of gas and oil from the well dug was preceded by seven years of work without any injury. The drilling was done and the well is to be closed. Another rig will takeover for production from the well. While BP managers assembled to congratulate the team for working without any injury, the pressurized gas gushed from the 5 km deep well and exploded.
The incident is not without early warning signs. The rubber gasket (seal to close the drill pipe tightly and shut the well) of the blowout preventer (BOP) located near the seabed, for the well got ruptured in an incident and rubber pieces were found in the mud used for holding the gas and oil within the well. A crewman accidentally forced the drill pipe by 15 ft through the BOP. But, engineers failed to analyse the cause for the presence of these rubber pieces. This shows that every major accident is preceded by a number of near misses and minor accidents. We should be able to identify, report and analyze all near misses and minor incidents however negligible they are. It appears there is pressure on the crew to complete the drilling work fast as they are already behind the schedule. This might have caused the crew to do away with the repair of critical safety systems too.
Further, the backup control system called ‘pod’ for BOP lost some of its functions. This reminds us of Murphy’s law.
The emergency drill carried out every Sunday to escape after head count was not followed after the accident. People started leaving in the available lifeboats without looking for others on the rig. This shows that whatever drills we do will go haywire and those in possession of escape vehicles will disappear instead of carrying the persons for which vehicles are intended.
It appears that safety is ignored because of the short term profits seen by the management compared to possible losses that may accrue to the organization when run without safety systems in place. The management that is responsible for allowing safety violations may not be there as they may take bonuses and leave. Once a system is violated and is in place for sometime, this wrong practice itself becomes an established system and will be considered normal. This has happened in Bhopal accident. All safety systems for MIC tanks were removed to save running costs. As there were no incidents, the management thought that they have done a wonderful job and reduced operating costs. May be, they are under pressure to show profits so that investors will be happy. Accidents do take place because public memory is short. They may be losers only for a short term and reaping increased valuation of their shares. Those affected because of the accident are limited in number and their voice is lost in the herd (of investors).
Normally when people are happy having achieved certain safety record, it will be followed with a major accident. There is no accident because we are lucky till the accident occurs. We are overconfident of our performance. We ignore the warning signals saying that everything is under control. We venture out to do something adventurous. Those who protest about violations are treated as ‘nuts’ and ‘pessimistic’. They may questioned about their integrity, commitment and chided for accepting bonuses or rise in salaries when systems are wrong as pointed out by the same persons. These persons will be blamed in all respected for pointing the violations forcing them to leave or they will be fired.
When accident occurs, people will conveniently forget everything though cautioned by few and term it as ‘one of those rare accidents which no one expected’.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Featured Post
Reduced my weight from 96 to 76 kg and tummy from 38-40 to 34-35 inches in about 9 months
I am working in the safety department of a government organization. As a part of the job, I used to go around and interact with person...
