much to the cost. The company was guilty of non-compliance with their own and national safety regulations – in other words, it was negligent. It’s true to say that the lessons here should have been obvious, but the accident report observed that the lessons of Piper Alpha in 1988, the world's worst-ever offshore disaster, were ignored. That’s two words – P-I-P- E-R – Piper, and A-L-P-H-A – Alpha.


Now … I wanted to go on to talk about the Piper Alpha disaster, but it’s quite a lengthy case, so I think I’ll come back to it if we have time. Alternatively, I may let you do some research yourself …


Unit 9, Lesson 9.2, Exercise D ≤2.11


1 So it should be clear that it also makes good business sense, in the end, for managers to assess and manage risk in a responsible way.


2 Now, it could be argued that health and safety principles are sometimes applied without common sense.


3 As we shall see, the results can be disastrous if risk assessments aren’t undertaken or reviewed, if there’s inadequate training of employees, or if cost-cutting reduces safety.


4 BP designed the GRACE system for the petroleum industry, but increasingly we find that it’s been taken up by many other industries.


5 Research has shown that the preventative measures in this case would not have added much to the cost.


6 It’s true to say that the lessons here should have been obvious, but the accident report observed that the lessons of Piper Alpha in 1988, the world’s worst-ever offshore disaster, were ignored.


Unit 9, Lesson 9.3, Exercise A ≤2.12


1 super'vision, non-com'pliance, e'mergency, regu'lation, impli'cation


2 'power station, 'chemical plant, 'steel works, factory 'floor


3 'risk assessment, 'training tool, con'fined 'space, 'fire brigade, 'safety check


4 ex'plosive, 'flammable, 'adequate, 'pressurized, 'dangerous


Unit 9, Lesson 9.3, Exercise C ≤2.13


Part 3 If we turn now to another incident, this time in the rail industry, we can see how failures in safety systems again had fatal consequences. The post- incident inquiry stated that it was ‘one of the worst examples of sustained industrial negligence’. I’m referring to the Hatfield train crash in the UK in October 2000, when an express train travelling at 190 kph left the rails as it took a right-hand bend. Centrifugal force threw it across the track. Four passengers were killed and 70 injured. The cause of the accident was massive fatigue in a rail, which shattered into over 300 pieces.


The maintenance company had told Railtrack (who ran the railways) that there was a problem in this rail two years before. In November, one year before the accident, the site manager reported severe cracking and said that the track needed repairing. This repair, although critical, was arranged for the following April.


Now, bearing in mind that rail failure would cause a disaster, what measures would you have recommended between November and April to ensure the safety of the trains? … What about a speed restriction? A damaged rail would be safe at under 30 kph. Or some of the trains on that line could have been diverted, to reduce stress.


In fact, nothing was done. Then, in April, the track was closed for repair – but the new rails hadn’t arrived. When they finally arrived in May, they were left beside the track, because Railtrack was reluctant to stop trains during the busy summer period. The repair was then scheduled for the end of October, but tragically, the accident happened two weeks before this.


Ah … I see some of you are using the Cornell note-taking system. That’s good. If you want to know more about this system, I suggest you look at How to Study in College by Walter Pauk, 9th edition, published 2007. It should be in the university library. I’m sure you all know the importance of taking good notes – and this system is particularly useful.


Now, I’m going to talk about the engineering problem in this incident. You don’t need to take notes on this, but you may find it interesting.


When a train travels along the rail, the contact area between wheel and rail is about 2 cm long if train and track are in perfect equilibrium. The 100- ton load of vehicle and machinery on eight wheels would be shared by eight of these contact spots.


126


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134