(100a) Please, Not Again! – The Second Time Process Safety Hit Home

Many Process Industry employees can recall an event or moment when the need for Process Safety became starkly apparent. Perhaps it was something stumbled across in the plant. Maybe it was an incident that came within a hair’s breadth of causing a catastrophic incident. These personal watershed moments often create a very real sense of vulnerability to a process incident, and can impact or even completely alter the path of one’s career.

Sixteen years after the first, the author experienced another Day that Process Safety Hit Home. This one hit harder than the first. This time, it was personal. It involved an explosion in a new process for which the author had personally led Hazard Studies, Layer of Protection Analyses (LOPAs), Consequence Analyses and Risk Assessment. It was an incident that was not foreseen, despite our best efforts. It caused a self-evaluation of the author’s personal competence, and the ability of the tools and methods we used to detect hazards. We speak of having a sense of vulnerability to process incidents, but there can also be a profound sense of vulnerability to our own shortcomings and how they may lead to a process incident.