Event
- Event ID
- 706
- Quality
- Description
- A driver of a fuel cells vehicle terminated the refuelling and drove away without disconnecting the fueling hose from its vehicle.
The breakaway of the fueling hose was supposed to open, but did not. The receptacle fitting sheared off the vehicle.
The hydrogen contained in the hose between the dispenser shutoff valve and the vehicle check valve was released.
[H2TOOLS] - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Dispenser (Breakaway)
- How was it involved?
- Failure To Activate
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIATING CAUSE was the tearing of the hose and the braking of the receptacle fitting on the vehicle.
The ROOT CAUSE was the error of the driver which forgot to disconnect the hose from the vehicle. CONTRIBUTING CAUSE was the fact that the breakaway system, designed to mitigate the consequences of these cases, did not operate as from design.
Tests of the breakaway, performed after event, showed that the breakaway operated at 210 lbs (95 kg), which was above the design value of 133 lbs (60 kg). This was very probable not a manufacturing error, but an installation error. It is further unclear who was supposed to detect this mishaps: could the station have performed regular check?
Facility
- Application
- Road Vehicles
- Sub-application
- FCEV (LDV)
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transfer (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- breakway, nozzle, receptacle, check valve
- Location type
- Open
- Location description
- Unknown
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
References
- Reference & weblink
Events in database H2TOOLS<br />
https://h2tools.org/lessons/hydrogen-fueling-dispenser-nozzle-drive-awa… />
(accessed December 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- H2TOOLS