Worker suffers horrific injuries in pressure test failure
This case is a perfect example of why:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
Leak Test Gone Bad (Hydrostatic of AL tank)
A welder died when struck by a piece of a hydraulic tank that came apart after being pressurized with air and water to check for leaks. The welder had removed the tank the previous day to repair a leak. On the day of the incident, the victim filled the tank with water and used an…...
Leak Test Gone Bad (using oxygen as test media)
Polish Authorities have determined that the heat pump explosion that killed two people last year was caused by using oxygen to carry out a leak test. The heat pump explosion on August 20, 2024, killed two people: an engineer (30) who was servicing the unit and the property owner (45). They were said to have…...
PRCS Fatalities (One (1) Entrant and three (3) would be rescuers)
Three workers (30, 35, and unknown age) died while another was hospitalised after a suspected gas leak at a lubricant-manufacturing factory. The accident occurred around 8:30 pm when employees entered a chamber for routine maintenance and were exposed to toxic fumes. The hospitalised worker was stable. Company manager said one of the workers lost consciousness,…...
Pressure Test Gone Bad (Hydrostatic Test)
WORKER BADLY INJURED: FIFE FIRM BACK IN DOCK AND FINED A worker sustained horrific injuries after being struck by highly pressurised water during hydraulic testing on machinery. His employer has been fined £161,250 ($218,460) for breaching health and safety law. A testing booth should have remained automatically locked when it presented a danger to employees…...
PRCS Fatality (Underground Gas Tank – unknown if it was a HAZ ATM or Medical; Several “would be rescuers” entered)
RIP 🙏 The tank was emptied while the fuel pumps were being remodeled. After the man collapsed, the workers were unable to pull him out of the confined space about 10 to 15 feet below the surface. “The other workers were trying to get down in that hole and take them out. It’s obviously not…...
Sydney, MT BLEVE (6/25/2025) Official Report
The state FM has been gracious in sharing this information with the SAFTENG community. Location:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
Leak Test Gone Bad
Employee #1, a welder, was inside a double-walled, approximately 5.5 ft in diameter steel tank to perform leak tests. A contractor had installed new stainless steel piping to the 1,000-gal blending tank, and initial use of the tank revealed some leakage where the new pipe entered the bottom of the tank. To perform the leak…...
Golf carts need to be managed as a Powered Industrial Truck (PIT)
It is my professional opinion that “golf carts” need to be managed as a Powered Industrial Truck (PIT). I have seen firsthand three (3) serious accidents resulting in life-altering injuries. We see fatalities like this one several times a year: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/worker-at-nh-storage-facility-dies-after-being-pinned-under-golf-cart/3803079… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a...
Load Testing failure (8/2025)
Many of us do load testing on our cranes and such and rarely do we have a failure. But when things do fail, they do so CATASTROPHICALLY, as shown below when this ship loading/unloading system failed during its load test…… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member?...
Pressure Testing Gone Bad (Fatality – Flange bolts not torqued properly)
On March 6, 2018, a 49-year-old pipefitter was hit in the chest by a pressurized 12-inch diameter polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe during a hydrostatic pressure test of a fire suppression system. The sudden pipe movement was attributed to a pipe joint connection failure in a buried section of the pipeline. The failure was due to…...
For all the safety experts on “metrics” decrying leading and lagging indicators as “bureaucracy” and a “waste of time”…
Imagine driving a vehicle without a dashboard. No feedback whatsoever as to how well you and the vehicle are performing. Sure, we can do it, but without feedback on our performance and the vehicle’s, I doubt we’d meet the state’s defined and quantified standards for “safe operation of a motor vehicle.” Just consider speed as…...