Incident Report
Subject: Billings Refinery Incident Date of Email reporting Incident: 15/09/2001 Report Detail: At approximately 10:30 AM on Friday morning, Aug. 24, 2001, a ‘Near-miss’ crane incident occurred at the Billings refinery Aggreko generator site. Several months ago, the refinery had arranged to bring in Diesel generators as supplemental electrical power. For a period of time, prohibitively high electrical costs had made the Diesel generators an attractive alternative to increasing electrical rates. Since local utility rates have stabilized, the rental costs of the generators are now becoming a liability. As a result, the Billings refinery has terminated the rental agreement and the generators are currently being loaded onto semi tractor-trailers for transport out of the facility. It was during the lift and load of one of the 42,000 pound, self-contained generators that the incident occurred. A contract truck driver began to pull his rig away from the load area with one of the crane chokers still attached to the generator unit that had just been loaded onto his trailer. No one was injured and no equipment damage occurred. However, the potential for a serious incident was there. An electrician for Yellowstone Electric Co. was atop the generator un-shackling the load when the truck was moved. The driver had been given no signal and the crane operator activated his horn as soon as he saw the rig begin to move. Slack was pulled out of the rigging and the generator slid about 2 to 3 feet on the trailer before the truck was stopped. An incident investigation team was immediately formed, and interviews were conducted with all parties involved.
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