oxygen tank death

[GreggS]

<rant>
First, I'm sorry for this driver - but there has to be something done with the sensationalized headlines!! The accident is described as: "A resulting autopsy showed broken ribs, fractured spinal column and lacerations through his abdominal region. The final autopsy conclusion stated that the death was caused by blunt force, the force of gas escaping the cylinder. They did not find evidence of the valve penetrating the victim." How is that "disembowels"??

Isn't the death enough of a headline? Do the journalists (good ones have to be embarrassed by all this) have any schooling anymore? Is click-bait the only way news is delivered.
</rant>

I was going to make the same observation had you not beat me to it.

And like you, I, too, am sorry for the driver and his family. But the writer of that article was not a very good reporter.

 

[rmssetc]

From the article:

The driver was rolling the cylinder at a slant, using the base of the cylinder as a pivot point/rolling base. The valve was facing his abdomen. ... At some point during the moving process the valve dislodged from the cylinder.​

I'm going to guess that it wasn't an impact that dislodged the valve (if it had fallen, the cylinder would have been at ankle height). My complete speculation is that the valve was not sufficiently tightened, the driver thought the cylinder was getting away (falling, moving too fast) as it was being rolled, and the driver grabbed the valve. The momentum of the rotating cylinder applied to the fixed valve unscrewed it enough to be ejected by the gas pressure.

Makes me think back to all the times I moved O2 and acetylene cylinders around the shop the same way... pivot & roll, try to keep the speed down, don't lean them too much, etc.

 

[JackD342]

<rant>
First, I'm sorry for this driver - but there has to be something done with the sensationalized headlines!! The accident is described as: "A resulting autopsy showed broken ribs, fractured spinal column and lacerations through his abdominal region. The final autopsy conclusion stated that the death was caused by blunt force, the force of gas escaping the cylinder. They did not find evidence of the valve penetrating the victim." How is that "disembowels"??

Isn't the death enough of a headline? Do the journalists (good ones have to be embarrassed by all this) have any schooling anymore? Is click-bait the only way news is delivered.
</rant>

I may be splitting hairs, but I don't consider a blog on Cylinder Training Services to be the same as journalism, and they are the source of the sensational headline. Either they should know better, or they left some details out of the article.

 

[Bob DBF]

From the article:

A resulting autopsy showed broken ribs, fractured spinal column and lacerations through his abdominal region. The final autopsy conclusion stated that the death was caused by blunt force, the force of gas escaping the cylinder. They did not find evidence of the valve penetrating the victim.

I would think that "lacerations through the abdominal region" would be disenboweling in my book, and it was done by the force of the gas, not by the "valve penetrating the victim". The headline is a bit sensational but I think it sums up the autopsy accurately.

And for anyone not paying attention, that was gas around 2000#.



Bob

 

[BlueTrin]

Definatly not best practices. The only time I see uncapped valves are when they are restrained while being used or filled. I'm sure OSHA will have a field day, unfortunately it's too late for the victim.

Yes I have seen some other than capped or restrained, but that's when I go into full a$$hole mode. In my youth, I managed to avoid a runaway industrial cylender but got see the damage, and although no one was injured, it made an impression on me. I don't know how SCUBA cylenders got off the hook for the caps, the valves are more robust than industrial valves, but still...


Bob

When you say scuba cylinders do you mean the ones we use to dive or the one used to store the air for fills ?

 

[JackD342]

When you say scuba cylinders do you mean the ones we use to dive or the one used to store the air for fills ?

I am sure he means the tanks on our backs, which are not threaded for a cap. The large bottles that should be capped during transport or storage when not actually in use are usually called a bank bottle or a cascade bottle/cylinder.

 

[Bob DBF]

When you say scuba cylinders do you mean the ones we use to dive or the one used to store the air for fills ?

Actual Scuba tanks, the air bank bottles already have them, but @2airishuman covered that in post 14.


Bob

 

[BlueTrin]

I am sure he means the tanks on our backs, which are not threaded for a cap. The large bottles that should be capped during transport or storage when not actually in use are usually called a bank bottle or a cascade bottle/cylinder.

Actual Scuba tanks, the air bank bottles already have them, but @2airishuman covered that in post 14.


Bob

I have a twinset on my balcony, I don’t live on the ground floor.

Should I be worried ?

 

[HKGuns]

I don't feel like the diving courses I took, (PADI) teach you enough about the dangers of Pressurized cylinders. I had to look up on my own, some best practices for transporting my tanks. Maybe they assume new divers won't own tanks? Bad assumption.

High Pressure anything is not to be trifled with, be careful out there. My dolphins taught me, long ago, to have absolute respect for high pressure air and hydraulics.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Just the other day, read in the NYT that the journalists/columnists don't write their own headlines. It's done through a different department that doesn't necessarily read through the whole article nor make serious effort to understand same. The headlines are to get readers to read, so there you have it.