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Review Of Bellingham Plant Ordered By Chemical Safety Board After Work Accident And Injuries

September 7, 2005

An urgent safety recommendation was issued by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board for the first time in its history.

The board is requesting that BP PLC create an independent panel of experts that will be responsible for reviewing safety at all five North American refineries, one of which is near Bellingham, Washington.

The agency has been conducting an investigation of an explosion and fire that claimed the lives of 15 workers and also injured 170 at the British company's Texas City refinery in March.

The recommendation by the board was also fueled by the occurrence of a number of fires and other incidents since then.

A Board spokesperson said the recommendation could not wait for the results of the investigation to be completed. The Board wants to examine the full scope of BP's oversight in order to understand the cause of the tragedy in Texas.

BP spokespeople said the company would be willing to work closely with the panel and to follow any recommendations made to ensure the safety of their plants.

BP says that they want nothing more than to make sure that a tragedy like the one in Texas City never repeats itself.

A pre-emptive recommendation before an investigation is complete like this one is the first in the board's eight-year history.

Preliminary findings related to the March explosion and fire will be released by the board on Oct. 27 during a community meeting.

The board says that many of the safety lapses that have been uncovered by the panel could pose a threat that could be an imminent hazard and has the potential to cause serious harm unless rectified in a short time frame.

The blast that occurred on March 23 exploded a unit that boosts the octane level of gasoline. The Texas City refinery processes 433,000 barrels of crude oil a day and is responsible for 3 percent of the nation's gasoline. The CSB said since the deadly blast there have been a variety of other issues reported at BP's plants.

One of the recent events was a serious hydrogen fire in another unit at the Texas City refinery.

On August 10, a hole developed in a valve that controls high pressure gas and oil. The incident was the cause of a community order for residents to stay inside their homes for safety reasons.

The most recent event was last week when there was a process related fire at BP's plastics subsidiary in Alvin.

According to the CSB, the job put forth by the panel is to spend 12 months taking a look at safety management and culture issues within BP and its plants.

A similar investigation was conducted following the tragic re-entry of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 when it broke apart over Texas. All seven astronauts aboard the spacecraft died.

The independent panel's review will be paid for by BP, but the CSB will be overseeing all the aspects of the investigation.

The CSB believes that the panel can accomplish two goals: the panel's work will be complementary to our root-cause investigation as well as to the safety audits that BP itself is undertaking. The panel will be working within arm's length from both BP and the CSB

The panel will be looking at the company's corporate safety culture, any oversights in its, near-miss reporting and investigation and mechanical integrity programs.

The independent panel could possibly have a major positive impact on the safety of workers at all five of BP's North American operations, as well as serving as a model for others in industry.

TEEN DRIVER CRASHES Car INTO APARTMENT, INJURES PREGNANT WOMAN

A car that came crashing into an apartment has left a pregnant woman in serious condition.

It was about 9:35 on Monday night when residents at the Heritage Grove Apartments, 1100 Sunset Blvd. NE, overheard somebody calling for help. Residents said they could hear people and kids screaming.

According to fire officials, the accident was caused by a 15-year-old boy who was learning how to drive while his father sat in the passenger seat of a full-size pickup truck.

The pair was in the apartment parking lot trying to park when the vehicle suddenly accelerated, went over a curb, fell down a 20-foot embankment and came crashing into a glass patio door and came to rest inside a ground floor apartment.

The pick-up rolled over a 28-year-old pregnant woman lying inside the apartment.

The first residents that showed up at the scene of the accident reported that the engine was still running, and that the woman was fortunately still conscious. They were able to move debris aside, see her, and speak to her.

Neighbors reported that the father-son pair had previously caused problems at the apartment complex and witnesses say that prior to the accident there had been some erratic driving going on.

Some neighbors report they heard the father and son inside the truck fighting before the crash.

Witnesses had believed that the driver was drunk and once the accident occurred, the first thought was that kids in the complex may have been injured.

Fire crews were forced to work in very tight quarters due to the size of the truck in the living room.

The woman was eventually taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where she was first listed in critical condition. By the middle of the next day, she had improved and she was upgraded to serious condition. She remained in the hospital's ICU. The woman's condition was upgraded to 'satisfactory' Tuesday evening.

The woman's daughter was also in the apartment at the time of the crash but was not injured.

Upon investigating, the police discovered that the 15-year-old driver did not have a learner's permit to drive. He will be cited and his father will be cited for allowing the boy to drive.

The father of the boy does not have car insurance.