Accident Victim Interview Report - Essay Example

Accident Victim Interview Report Recently I visited a victim of industrial accident and spent sometime with him to enquire the details ofthe accident. The victim is a worker in an oil refinery and he met with an accident that caused burn injuries a few years ago. The accident occurred on July 28, 2005. He normally went to work that day like his usual working days. Along with his fellow workers he was performing maintainance work on the job site. He was doing his job in a shed near the hydrotreater unit in the refinery.

The hydrogen gas heat exchanger pipe on the resid hydrotreater unit ruptured and hydrogen gas leaked out causing a large fireball. The victim was engrossed in his job and since he was wearing ear buds to protect him with too much noise he didn’t notice the chaos. He was unfortunately caught by the fireball after the explosion and sustained burn injuries. The quick action of his fellow co-workers and immediate first aid given to him saved his life. The Chemical Safety Board investigated the cause of accident and reported that a contractor had accidently switched a carbon steel pipe elbow with a low alloy steel pipe elbow during the maintainance work.

This caused rupture in the pipe leading to leading to a failure mode called High- Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) causing fireball. The CBS found that it was not solely the mistake of the contractor, the company had not informed that the elbows were different and the maiintainance contractor had not used any method like tagging to re-install the elbows in their position. The victim was immediately rushed to the nearby hospital where he was immediately diagnosed and admitted for treatment.

Doctors reported 20 percent first degree minor skin burns on covering his upper part of the body. He stayed in the hospital for about a week and missed work for another week before recovery. Some burn marks he still sustains on his body, however he is completely fit for work and thanks God for giving him a second life. The company took responsibility to bear the cost of his treatment and the labour union also demanded descent compensation for him till he recovered and joined work again.

His company has witnessed two more accident cases prior to this one and they were fatal accidents leading to severe loss of capital and labour. This accident was followed by OSHA visit to issue safety guidelines and check the safety standards in the refinery. Following this accident the CBS recommended that industry should have its own committee to monitor the safety standards, hazard identification and remove the cause of possible hazards before accident occurred. In twenty days the victim resumed work and he was absolutely fit, he avoided working in hot conditions for some time, he was quite phobic to fire for a few months but with time things went normal.

Following the accidents, the company formed a committee to monitor possibility of accidents and also imparted training to all the employs for quick action and disaster management in case of any kind of emergency. Use of personal protection equipments was mandatory for all workers and if found violating this they were fined. Currently, the victim has been promoted to A grade workman and is among the skilled assets of the company, he is finding no problems in his personal or professional life due to the injury and neither shows any kind of reluctance towards his job.

He remembers the day and says he has been lucky to survive and since then started valuing life. He has been among the few who have been given a chance to relive.