2025 Spring Meeting and 21st Global Congress on Process Safety

(41ar) Don’t Let “Double Jeopardy” Jeopardize Your Risk Analysis

Author

Richard Carter - Presenter, ACM Facility Safety Inc.
Double Jeopardy, also known as multiple jeopardy, is one of the most misunderstood concepts used in PHAs. If you have participated in a Process Hazards Analysis (PHA), you have probably heard someone call out “double jeopardy!” when the team is brainstorming potential hazardous scenarios. If the team agrees, that scenario might be dropped immediately and the team moves on. But was that the right decision?

This phrase refers to the concept that two rare, unrelated, short-term failures are unlikely to occur at the same time, and therefore the scenario of both occurring together does not need to be addressed in the PHA. Applied correctly, this concept can help to focus the team’s thinking and avoid spending their valuable time on scenarios with an inherently remote chance of occurring. Unfortunately, it is often used incorrectly to dismiss valid scenarios, leaving the facility with unidentified, and therefore unprotected, risk.

This session will address common errors made in the application of Double Jeopardy, and will provide practical guidelines to use in PHA studies to apply the concept effectively, maintaining the efficiency of the study but also providing a robust and effective risk analysis.