OSHA and CBS’s report

 OSHA and CBS’s report

INTRODUCTION:

Investigations from OSHA and CBS’s report indicate that the BP Texas City disaster was caused by numerous range of failures such as understaffing, mechanical errors, and, most importantly, it was contributed by human error. The cause of this tragic incidence added by many things like the location of the trailers where the operations were meant to start because according to the blueprint of the plant it is clear that the containers were located in the most hazardous locations which put the employees prone to harm (Holmstrom, et.al, 2006). For example, a close look at the location of the trailers indicates that they were located in between the catalyst warehouse as well as the isomerization unit, whereby; they were separated by pipes that carried the most flammable liquid in the company. Also; a close look at the permanent structures that contained the company’s offices indicates that they were located far from any hazard, which is why there were no deaths in permanent office structures. Based on this; it is clear that if the location of the trailers had been as far as the permanent offices, then there would probably have not been as many casualties as cited in the case study and this shows a possible ignorance of OSHA’s safety rules which contributed to the high number of casualties.

BODY:

The tragic BP Texas City disaster incidence can be tied to more than a few human errors and ignorance of OSHA rules. Firstly, it is clear that the both maintenance as well as employees were aware of the dangers involved in the isomerization start-up method; however, they never bothered to inform the contractors. Contractors were unaware of the risks posed by the isomerization start-up process until the day the disaster occurred, which can be contributed to negligence (Wallace, 2006).

Therefore, ignorance about the location of the isomerization can be cited as the number one system failure that contributed to this disaster. Secondly, the absence of a better logbook of night and day shifts can be cited as yet, another primary system that contributed towards this incidence. For example; the logbook did not indicate the level of the last night’s pumping level as well as the failure of the alarm sound that would have alerted employees of the overflow of the oil, and this can be one of the major causes of this accident (Holmstrom, et al., 2006).

Communication, as we all know, is one of the integral elements of a successful organization. Bad communication can be cited as the third system failure that caused the tragic incidence, which claimed fifteen lives and leftover one hundred and eighty people injured. There was no clear communication between ground staff members and the board members, which is another major cause of this disaster. The fourth system failure was the mistake of leaving the level valve closed for over three hours while, the liquid was still being fed to the system. If the valve system had been investigated and the faulty lid discovered earlier, this tragedy would have indeed been avoided (Wallace, 2006).

According to OSHA rules, the tragedy would have been prevented by having effective safety management in place. The fifth system failure that caused this tragedy was poor safety management standards because these procedures had not been fully implemented or were simply not being adhered to within the company. There were more than a few safety management standards that had not been implemented, and therefore, this can be highly attributed to the accident (Wallace, 2006). The sixth system failure that caused the Texas fires was the start up process whereby the employees continued to add more liquid to the already overfilled splitter tower, which was the main reason why there were an overflow and spilling of the hazardous liquid that triggered the fire. The seventh cause of this accident was the failure of Isom (isomerization) unit managers to provide appropriate leadership and the inability of hourly workers to follow written procedures are among the root causes of this incident. The eighth and ninth system failures that caused the fire were tower overfills and lack of ethics (Kalantarnia, Khan  & Hawboldt, 2010). The tenth and eleventh causes of this incidence were the liquid rapidly vaporized, which was due to evaporation and wind dispersion. Dispersion as well as increased evaporation of the fluid can be cited as yet other causes of this fire. The twelfth and thirteenth system failure include the failure of the control panel to display the flow of the liquid as well as a lack of system monitoring by those in attendance. Lastly; significant downsizing of staff members which led to some employees being overworked and failure of the disaster management of the company to investigate facilities at the most considerable risk of a catastrophic accident was the fourteenth and fifteenth system failures that caused the Texas fire accident (Kalantarnia, Khan & Hawboldt, 2010).

CONCLUSION:

To sum it up, many system failures contributed to the Texas fire accident, such as understaffing, mechanical errors, and, most importantly, human error. The cause of this tragic incident contributed by many things like the locality of the trailers where the operations were meant to start because according to the blueprint of the plant, it is clear that the trailers were located in the most perilous locations which put the employees susceptible to harm.