at a site that I've consulted for on occasion over the years. It was a tank explosion that claimed four lives. Very sad news.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-13664400

We talked a bit about industrial safety in the wake of the Declan Sullivan tragedy, and the importance of conducting root cause analyses instead of immediately pointing fingers and looking for blame. I happen to know the chief investigator assigned to this one, and I also known that this particular site has a pretty good safety record over the years in what is a very high-risk environment. The final report may reveal individual negligence as the sole cause of the tragedy, but more likely (as is the case in other workplace accidents I'm familiar with) it will have been a combination of factors.

I bring this up in reference to Declan for anyone who might have questioned the necessity of a thorough and public investigation, or who were incredulous that no one got fired and were looking for someone to nail (like the Plain Dealer cartoonist). In the same way that this company is investigating the cause to avoid future tragedies in the field, so too did ND need to uncover what led to Sullivan's death and make significant changes to its SOP as a result. Rushing to blame someone may not only be unjust to that individual, but also detrimental to the safety of the whole enterprise in the future with no "lessons learned."