In the following weeks, we will be looking at various case studies of safety incidents that had an organizational failure as one of the root causes. Let’s look inside the Chernobyl incident. As discussed in this article, the following organizational issues occurred: RBMK reactor design flaw concealed from clients Reactor was scheduled to be tested … More Organizational Failure: Is it Systemic? Part 1
A water loss occurred at a residence when a water heater catastrophically failed. An ACS Engineer was hired to investigate. The drain valve to the water heater was removed by hand, not requiring tools. The failure was due to corrosion to the tank of the water heater. The corrosion extended upwards from the failure point … More From the Archives: Water Heater Failure
ACS Engineers, Elizabeth Jensen and Edward Jensen, share insights with a peer reviewed journal article into how to evaluate an operator’s manual based on our experience in engineering & safety!
Now is the time to start planning for students and how they safely travel to/from home in the fall. Prior to the annual time change, Nov 7th, sunrise is at 7:39AM. This means that most high school and elementary school students will be walking or riding bicycles to school in the dark and during twilight, … More ACS Safety Note: Student Safety
Several of the safety incidents that ACS professionals have investigated included workers who were distracted. Safety+Health Magazine published an article by Alan Ferguson, associate editor, “Situational awareness a ‘separate dimension of hazard control’ ” which discusses that employee training should include recognizing when he/she is not in a state of “relaxed awareness”. One of the … More Safety+Health Magazine: Situational awareness
What exactly constitutes a “competent person” … More Safety+Health Magazine: Competent Person
A pickup truck was damaged by a fire in the cab of the vehicle. An ACS Engineer was hired to inspect the vehicle for the cause based on its reported origin in the vicinity of the steering column. Three wires below the steering column showed potential beading, indicating their being electrified during the fire. Two … More From the Archives: Vehicle Fire #2
An area school experienced a sudden drop in water pressure to its building. Excavation of the water pipeline revealed a large hole in the copper of the pipe near the tapered pipe connector. An ACS Engineer inspected the damage and found that the soldering of the connection was incomplete. The location of the missing solder … More From the Archives: Pipe Damage
A trailer truck on its way to pick up a load lost its rear wheel assembly. The debris then impacted another vehicle in the on-coming traffic side of the road, injuring its driver. An ACS engineer was assigned to investigate. By the time the trailer was available for inspection, the only remaining portions of the … More From the Archives: Trailer Wheel Separation