Safety at the loading bay
Each day throughout the world, thousands of operations to load and off-load petroleum products take place on road tankers, rail tank cars, and marine vessels. That so few accidents are currently reported is a tribute to regulation, training, and equipment engineering
Loading and unloading product into tankers is an inherently risky event, which involves connecting a fixed system to a flexibly located, and, sometimes, moving transport vessel. Accidents can occur at any point throughout the loading sequence; but in particular while entering the loading facilities, and moving the loading equipment to connect it to the tanker.
Typical of the incidents reported is that of a 37 year old male plant operator who was fatally injured several years ago at a Massachusetts oil supply terminal when he fell nine feet from the top of a home heating fuel truck.
The victim and the fuel truck driver had climbed on top of the truck to purge air from a load arm assembly line before filling the truck with fuel. Another was that of a loading arm that was uncoupled while product was being offloaded from the USflagged tanker Overseas Boston, in Ferndale, Washington. Up to 20 barrels of oil reached the sea after the marine loading arm failed to remain locked on the shipÍs manifold flange, although why it detached is unknown.
The enquiry recommended that appropriate marine terminal procedures are modified to reference the use of the new positive hydraulic shut-off valves and E-clips located on the couplers.
Regulatory organisations such as the UKÍs Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have been carrying out enforcement initiatives to reduce the risk of people falling from the top of road tankers. While not proposing a single solution, the HSE welcomes the move towards bottom loading. In Australia, a survey revealed that in 96% of workrelated falls, the victims had not been using any form of personal fall protection at the time of the incident. In 2004, the Standfast Corporation undertook a study into the use of the TRAM (total restraint access module) being used in the State of Victoria. The TRAM is designed to provide a safe means of access from a ladder, and working on top of a tanker, and is designed so that the user is firmly attached to the unit at all times and cannot fall to the8 ground. The safety system includes a handrail that slides along a horizontal bar fixed to the tanker, and a harness worn by the operator that is attached by two belts to the handrail. The handrail provides a support and constraint that moves vertically and horizontally with the operator. The report concluded that the TRAM complied with the StateÍs safety and occupational health regulations, and that it was a suitable and effective measure to prevent falls from road tankers.
