The Wrong Way to do IT

I;ve been at the firm now about 6months and to-day I had to take

over a preloaded artic and tank combination, I picked up the keys&

paper work from the office and went over to do a vehicle check,

This took about 20-30 mins , and then off I went on my way to

the unloading destination,On arrival I reported in the the office and did

the documentation,afterwards I drove to the unloading point,

AGAIN; I checked in to the foremans office and he told me where to

go and to carry on with unloading the tank, Now I parked up and

started to unload the tank ,as usaul I empted the 1st pot (CHAMBER)

and when it was empty went up and checked that all of the product

was gone, Yes the pot was empty so I took off the unloading pipe

put a bucket to catch any of those left over spillage, and connected

to the 2nd pot, as I opened the valve for the last pot, it all ran out

of the open valve on the 1st pot, I quickly shut the valve at the front

chucked a saftey cover on to the drainage cover near bye,

Now after reporting it and clearing up the mess I had made,along

came one of the firms safety chiefs , we got to talking about what

happened and I explained how I carried out the unloading and

upon getting on our knees and going under the lorry saw that

BOTH pots were connectted together with a steel pipe and

this was the reason that while I had worked what I knew as the

right way, for this 1 tank it was completely wrong.

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS TWO FOLD POINT1;; YOU SHOULD

ALWAYS ASK HOW IT WORKS IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE EQUIPMENT

POINT2;; YOUR EMPLOYER SHOULD EITHER HAVE A PERSON TO

EXPLAIN TO EVERY ONE WHEN NEW EQUIPMENT COMES IN OR

HAVE A TRAININGDAY FOR ALL EMPLOYERS:

WE after many years of mistakes do just that and also have a

firms book explaining many of the points that we require to know

to carry out our tasks of work as per ISO STANDARDS:

Good story and tips again brit pete.

A lack of training, maybe, but a manifold on a tank is easy to spot. the valve on the first Kammer should have been closed and fitted with a blincap before connecting the second pot.

If that 2 or 3 pot tank had incompatible products, you are looking at more than explaining to a company safety officer :confused:

The tank still had both pots (KAMMER) seperated with no holes in the

steelwalls. the connection was done by connecting the valves in the

bottom of the pot with a steel pipe which you could not see unless

you went under to the middle of the tanks body, also both valves were

in working order. Yes it was a mistake on the part of more than one

person,Mine for not asking if there was any think new that I should

know,The other driver for not putting a remark in the papers to

explain about the tanks features, But the next person in line is the

idiot who had the tank so modified but failed to ensure that this

modifcation was put into the paperwork for the tank that the driver

had to carry with him. IF you had read the story I said I LOOKED in

the pot and saw only a emptey tank with no visable modifications.

and so what I did was right if the tanks had not been connected

with this unseen pipe, THIS by the way was 18years ago way

before any one thought of the word ISO and in works training.

the connection was done by connecting the valves in the

bottom of the pot with a steel pipe which you could not see unless

you went under to the middle of the tanks body

Thats what is known as a manifold.

Supposing you had been carrying two different products, very common in tanks.

Blue dye and red dye! no problem.

Class 5 Oxidising Agent and Class 3 Flammable Liquid makes a bit more of a mess,

18 years ago or now, it still makes a big bang :stuck_out_tongue:

Sorry I should have said in the begining that we only carried the one

and same product in this tank, I made a mistake but what driver

will take the covering panels off to see if all pots are connected

together?? After my mishap this tank was taken out of traffic and

re-modified, so this type of accident would not happen again and

as I also wrote my firm started ,training the drivers better and

like every other major company wrote a user-handbook for the

drivers to improve safety aspects in our firm.

Yes I made a misstake , but people who live in glass houses

should not throw stones. I am hopeing that if some one reads

the story that they will learn for my mistake and so hopefuly

be one of those who will work more carefully.