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Alyeska finds inoperative brakes on truck in Valdez fatality Company pledges inspections, policy revisions, maintenance experts; initiates line-wide inspection of heavy equipment Petroleum News Alaska
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said Oct. 18 that it found in the course of its investigation of the death of Alyeska technician Jerry Barnes at the Valdez Marine Terminal that brakes on the truck he was driving were inoperative.
Alyeska appointed an investigation team to review the accident that resulted in Barnes’ death at 9:39 p.m. on Aug. 16 on Powerhouse Road at the terminal. Barnes was hauling fill for a parking lot expansion at the VMT emergency response building. The truck left the road at the bottom switchback and fell approximately 50 feet down the face of a rock cliff. Despite rescue efforts, Barnes was declared dead at the Valdez Hospital. Task force reviewed accident Alyeska Chief Operating Officer Dan Hisey appointed a task force made up of Alyeska employees and contractors to review the accident, and to help the company take steps to ensure a similar tragedy doesn’t happen in the future.
Alyeska said the task force found that several things led to the accident, including failure to follow a terminal directive limiting traffic on Powerhouse Road to vehicles rated less than one-ton.
The investigation also found that the truck’s brakes were inoperative. Worn and out-of-tolerance brake slack adjusters on five of six wheel brakes appear to have prevented brake sue to drum contact, the company said. As a result of the brake failure, the truck was going too fast to make the turn, causing it to go off the road.
Alyeska said the truck had been inspected six times in the nine months prior to the accident, including a required annual Department of Transportation inspection in November 1999. Based on the information available from the vehicle maintenance records, the DOT inspection was signed off as complete with no problems except a rear turn signal light.
None of the other maintenance records on the vehicle, performed after the DOT inspection, note any inspection or adjustment of the brake slack adjusters. Line-wide inspection initiated “This was a tragic event that could have been prevented,” Hisey said. “Going forward, we are revising how policies are established and communicated. In addition, we have initiated a line-wide inspection of all heavy operating equipment and I am establishing a team of maintenance experts to examine all aspects of equipment maintenance processes and systems. There is much in this report to consider and examine further and we are continuing to assess all of its implications.”
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