Posted byThe Associated Press reported the following”
“Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction, saying they couldn’t rule out negligence.“
“‘If everything went right, we wouldn’t all be here right now,’ Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said. ‘There’s a point where negligence raises to the level of criminal conduct, and that’s what we’re investigating.‘”
For the complete story, see this Houston Chronicle link:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6857654.html
Interestingly, The Chemical Safety Board investigators were turned away because this was a “criminal investigation.”
If you thought the only place where accidents can become “criminal” was in the UK where they have a Corporate Manslaughter Law, I guess you are mistaken. If you would like to find out more about “criminal” investigations of accidents, you might want to attend the new pre-Summit Course that is being provided by our UK TapRooT® Instructors. They are both retired detectives with extensive criminal investigation experience, including the criminal investigation of industrial accidents.
The course is new and information about it hasn’t been posted on the Summit site yet, so watch for future announcements for more information.
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Investigations
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Although I’m working in Balad, Iraq I still look forward to your news letter.
I’ve had first hand experience with the CSB at an explosion in Danvers, Massachusetts a few years ago. At the time I was working in public safety as assistant coordinator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Team. They have the incident report on their CSB site.
The CSB has very talented workers however, they don’t know how to play in the sand-box. At the Danvers incident they came in like nobody was there. We had an investigation on going with local, state and federal agencies. A unified command post was established. On there arrival they didn’t communicate with anyone on scene and decided to start doing what they do…that was until they were escorted with the threat of being arrested from scene. They walked into ground zero with no PPE and was noticed by a safety officer who communicated with State Police, ATF and State HazMat Technicians to ID and have them report for accountability. They were treated with respect but became very cavalier. The lead investigator was told a grid was being plotted and evidence being collected. Didn’t seem to matter to them…the attitude change came with the threat of being arrested.
Long story short…you would think that a lesson learned moment would have been recognized for future responses. Apparently that didn’t happen.
Comment by George Rose — March 2, 2010 @ 11:29 am
A very interesting first hand observation. Thanks George.
Comment by Mark Paradies — March 3, 2010 @ 8:45 am