Event
- Event ID
- 418
- Quality
- Description
- A CGH2 tube trailer-tractor was hit at the rear by another vehicle, an empty flatbed trailer-tractor. Because of the collision, at least two tube safety valves were broken. The released hydrogen ignited and the fire engulfed the other eight cylinders, which over-heated, causing the pressure relief valve to activate and release the whole content (350 kg).
- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Fire (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Main component involved?
- Valve (Generic)
- How was it involved?
- Rupture & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Impact, Rollover, Crash
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The INITIATING CAUSE was the damage to the pressure control system caused by the collision caused by another vehicle.
The safety measures operated as expected.
Beyond an evident personal responsibility of one driver in the collision, the ROOT CAUSE is difficult to determine. A better design could guarantee stronger protection of the trailer pressure control system.
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen Transport And Distribution
- Sub-application
- CGH2 tube trailer
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Transport (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- safety valve
- Location type
- Open
- Operational condition
- Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
- The trailer consisted of ten tubes.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
Lesson Learnt
- Lesson Learnt
The safety measures operated as expected.
A better design of the protective barrier at the rear of the trailer could guarantee stronger protection of the trailer pressure control system, and therefore the reduction of the probability of an escalation. However, it is difficult to take into account all possible crash scenarios generated by traffic. Vehicle and himan protection strategies are based on highly standardised assumptions, which do not cover all possible cases, in term of speed, number and mass of vehicles involved, their relative postiton and direction, etc..
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount
- 350
- Actual pressure (MPa)
- 20
- Design pressure (MPa)
- 20
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
Incident I-1984070441 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA: <br />
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%… />
(accessed September 2024)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- PHMSA
