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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Roll-over of a CGH2 trailer

Event

Event ID
755
Quality
Description
A minor fire broke out following a gas leak from hydrogen cylinders. A truck was returning to the base company after offloading hydrogen cylinders at a factory. The driver lost control and crashed against a pillar on a bridge over a river and overturned. Police brought a crane from to right the vehicle but as the lift started, the truck rolled backwards, the crane's wire rope snapped, damaging the valves on several cylinders and leaking hydrogen then caught fire. Fire and Rescue Service Personnel took more than an hour to extinguish the fire. The road was blocked for about six hours.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Fire (No additional details provided)
Macro-region
Asia
Country
India
Date
Main component involved?
Valve (Generic)
How was it involved?
Rupture
Initiating cause
Impact, Rollover, Crash
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the loss of control of the vehicle by the driver.
The ROOT CAUSE was a human error causing the roll-over, and probably additional errors during rescue operations.

Facility

Application
Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
Sub-application
CGH2 tube trailer
Hydrogen supply chain stage
Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
All components affected
hydrogen cylinders
Location type
Unknown
Operational condition
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE
A truck was returning to Nagapattinam after offloading hydrogen cylinders at a factory in Ranipet in Vellore (360 km) and the driver lost control and crashed against a pillar on a bridge over Gadilam river and overturned.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
1
Number of fatalities
0
Post-event summary
Police brought a crane from SIPCOT to right the vehicle but as the lift started, the truck rolled backwards, the crane's wire rope snapped, damaging the valves on several cylinders and leaking hydrogen then caught fire. Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Service Personnel took more than an hour to extinguish the fire. The road was blocked for about six hours.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

Truck drivers delivering hydrogen cylinders should take extra care about safety and drive more carefully.

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Not reported

References

Reference & weblink

Original source lost

JRC assessment