Past Accident Analysis – Potential and Pitfalls

One of the two pillars an which the edifice of process safety R&D stands is past accident analysis – the other pillar being experimentation. But in contrast to most other branches of science and technology, wherein reproducible experiments provide the foundation for building, testing, and refining theoretical frameworks, there is very limited scope of conducting such experiments in the domain of accident forecasting and prevention. Experiments have been designed and conducted from time to time which make scaled-down attempts to simulate vessel failures, explosions, toxic releases etc, but it is well neigh impossible to such conduct experiments at scales approaching full-scale installations. This situation bestows great importance to past accident analysis (PAA) in chemical process industries. By careful reconstruction of events, and identifying their triggers, sequence, and their consequences, valuable wisdom of hindsight can be acquired with which pointers for developing accident prevention strategies can be drawn.