Pipeline Fire near Houston, TX 6

[StressGuy]

This was quite the hot topic for those of us in the Houston area yesterday:

La Porte Pipeline Explosion

It ended up being a case of an out of control car from the adjacent Wal-Mart parking lot drove into the right-of-way, crashed through the enclosure fence, and broke the line.

It made for an impressive sight. ABC News Video Story

I'm sure the pipeline companies are going to reevaluate how they secure these valve stations near populated areas. While street view shows that the right-of-way was pretty well protected by bollards and heavy fencing from the adjacent Spencer Highway, there really wasn't anything similar along the shopping center parking lot side.



Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[1503-44]

Where is that building with the reflecting window?

Probably an NGL. Energy Transfer seems to do a lot of intrastate NGL transport from WTx gas field treating plants to Houston. Its also getting difficult to distinguish that crude from NGL anyway. They had to make up a new name to keep it on the crude market.

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[pmover]

"I'm sure the pipeline companies are going to reevaluate how they secure these valve stations near populated areas."

Agree!
in early 90's, my employer did this evaluation and resulted in some locations with block walls & others with bollards. In my travels about the usa, i have seen several exposed valve, pressure regulation locations without barriers to vehicles. Some are located in near proximity to major roads.

it is only a matter of time before these locations get evaluated and addressed.

 

[LittleInch]

I think its AFC urgent care.

That fluid was coming out with a hell of a lot of self sustaining pressure even though they were supposed to isolate the section. NGL is very vague....

One report says it is "Y grade" NGL. Seems this is a right old mixture hence the dense yellow slightly smoky flame. "Y Grade is the term used to describe the combined natural gas liquids (NGLs) resulting from the natural gas processing process. It encompasses components such as ethane, propane, iso butane, normal butane, and natural gasoline. "

Looks to be an Energy transfer 20" line. I love the way Reuters headline calls it LNG, but the text say NLG....

https://www.reuters.com/business/en...ine-continues-burn-la-porte-texas-2024-09-17/

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[LittleInch]

pmover.

I agree and it is usually included as it is of low cost and provides a good level of protection. In this case though it might not have been included from that side as I doubt anyone really considered a car breaking through a barrier and traveling 70m across a field with several other poles in the way and a fair way back from the highway. However it does look like a well used ROW and it is a bit surprising that there wasn't anything more than a flimsy wire fence, especially for a 20" NLG line just waiting to pour its contents into the air. Still not sure what this was, but I guess its a bypass line around an isolation valve or similar.

People manage to do the strangest things in cars. There was a case in the UK where someone fell asleep in his car on the motorway and drifted at a slight angle to the road, missed the end of a crash barrier protecting a railway crossing and landed on the railway causing an de-railment. They had then to look at all such bridges and they lengthened the barrier and allowed for such a slight angle approach more than they had to before. Ditto all the little mounds / "perches" used by the police next to motorways needs to be made one way so that you reverse into them after someone tried to climb one at 60 mph and launched themselves to their death.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Oops409]

Littleinch's mixing up the gas and brake pedal, brings back memories of growing up riding Japan/American Motorcycles with gear shift on left side, and rear brake on right side. Then getting on a Triumph or Norton Motorcycle with those foot levers switched!

It can cause a real serious pucker factor! Not unlike driving on opposite side of roads.....

 

[1503-44]

Yes, that's the new (2012-2013) name for Tx crude, Y grade oil.
See attached Oil & GAS Journal piece.



--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[StressGuy]

The fire has died down significantly and investigators have been able to get into the area to begin their work. Not surprisingly, they found human remains in the car. That cannot have been an easy thing to look upon.

Human Remains Found

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[StressGuy]

The driver of the SUV has finally been identified. And, for the love of all you hold dear, avoid the comments section. People are terrible.

human-remains-found-in-suv-that-struck-deer-park-pipeline-identified

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

 

[bones206]

I wonder how feasible it would be for vehicles to detect driver medical emergencies and react to bring the vehicle to a safe stop. I feel like the technology is there, but implementation would be very tricky. Perhaps it could be linked to a health app on an apple watch or something along those lines.

Not my area of expertise, just a stray thought. Curious what the automotive engineers here think about that idea.

 

[LittleInch]

My car already sends me warnings about being tired and take a rest, but I don't think any system can detect what sounds like a seizure with the drivers foot pressed to the floor by the look of it. It all happened very fast.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Oops409]

I experienced a one time 'Grand Mal' Seizure, and according to my wife it was violent. Doctors determined it was due to a new medicine side effect, which I was taken off. I tested with no seizure tendencies. I was out cold till waking up sometime at emergency room.

No way this guy should have been operating anything if he is a seizure risk.....

Perhaps why he had to borrow a car???

 

[LittleInch]

In the UK at least, if you start having seizures or blackouts you have your licence removed for min 6 months until you show 6 months of no attacks / taking the medication for e.g. epilepsy. The downside is that you have the personal responsibility to either self declare it or go to the GP who has a duty to tell the relevant agency.

The bit in the story about "His family says McEvoy had recently started having seizures.." is rather frightening to me. Now normally you wouldn't run into a pipeline which catches fire, but you can easily kill several people by crashing into them with your 2 ton vehicle.



Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[3DDave]

For technology:

1) Ability to detect if the car has left the paved surface into an area that driving is not allowed via GPS and mapping
2) Ability to detect if driver no longer is holding the wheel (likely let go early in the seizure)
3) Ability to detect if there is an obstacle ahead of the vehicle and stopping instead of colliding
4) Ability to detect gaze direction or if the driver's eyes are even open
5) Ability to detect WOT (wide open throttle) events in areas where they would not be helpful (parking lots and grass covered fields. Overridable in case of Zombie Apocalypse.)
6) Ability to detect head and/or body position to compare to normal driving posture

In practical implementation, some would initially generate warning requiring a reaction such as pushing the "Override" button or self-reset if the condition resolved, such as a gaze detect alert, the resumption of looking outside the car.

I doubt the remains were particularly gruesome. The body was very near a flame broiler that had sufficient intensity it was turning telephone poles to charcoal from 100 feet or greater distance in open air; this was about 30 feet. Radiation drops as the square of the distance, so the body had at least 9 times the intensity as the charcoal poles did. Probably a carbon layer over a skeleton.

 

[bones206]

Sounds like the future is now...

https://www.consumerreports.org/car...car-over-if-driver-incapacitated-a1204997865/

Early versions of these technologies are already appearing on cars in other regions. For example, some Volkswagen Arteon sedans sold in Europe and equipped with the Emergency Assist 2.0 feature will turn on their flashers and pull over to the side of the road if a driver becomes unresponsive. According to the automaker, if the car senses that a driver is not using the accelerator, brake, or steering wheel, it will first try to awaken a driver by sounding alarms and tapping the brakes to “jolt” the driver into awareness. If the driver still doesn’t respond, it will automatically steer itself to the lane furthest from traffic on a multilane road, and bring the vehicle to a stop.

In Japan, Mazda has said it will debut its Co-Pilot system on new vehicles this year. Tamara Mlynarczyk, a Mazda spokesperson, tells CR that the system is “continuously monitoring” the driver’s performance. “In a potential emergency situation where the driver loses consciousness, the system is prepared to intervene and assist the driver or pull the car over to a safer location,” she says. On a multilane road, it may be able to pull the vehicle to the road’s shoulder

 

[Oops409]

Wonder how that system would work on multilane interstates at rush hour in Atlanta, GA area? It might take a long time to get from far lane to right shoulder?

Not sure any AI Driving Technology Ready for packed multilane interstates with idiot human drivers?

 

[bones206]

Did a little more research and it seems the plan is to have communication links between vehicles and public safety systems, V2X for short. That way automated systems can react for us when we otherwise wouldn’t have the time or wherewithal to act.

Sounds like the technology that has already been developed by engineers, but the rollout has been hampered by government policy “inefficiencies”, let’s call it.

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/16/nx-s...rucks,with the roadway infrastructure itself.

Despite enthusiasm from safety advocates and federal regulators, the technology has faced a bumpy rollout. During the Obama administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed making the technology mandatory on cars and light trucks. But the agency later dropped that idea during the Trump administration.

The deployment of V2X has been “hampered by regulatory uncertainty,” said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents automakers.

But he’s optimistic that the new plan will help.

“This is the reset button,” Bozzella said at Friday’s announcement. “This deployment plan is a big deal. It is a crucial piece of this V2X puzzle.”

 

[LittleInch]

Don't know the details here, but that sounds like an absolute nightmare to implement and how it actually solves anything.

A bit like the lane monitoring systems which you now need to turn off every time you start the car that, at least in Europe, are absolutely useless and do vitually zero to reduce risk and incidents.

They are talking about introducing speed limiters based on GPS location and / or cameras picking up road signs. Now that is scary.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[bones206]

If it works and proves out to make the roads safer, I’m fine with giving up some autonomy. They will have to balance out being effective without being intrusive, but we’ll see how it goes.

 

[Oops409]

3 days ago, I experienced immediate, without warning, loss of electric power steering on a well maintained truck with only 80K miles on it.

I was doing 40 MPH in a 45 MPH zone on a windy 2 lane road. It was late Sunday afternoon so thank fully no traffic.

The electronic controller imbedded in the cast aluminum steering rack, chose to fail coming into a hair pin turn. It felt like I had no control of truck, but in reality I still had mechanial linkage working just fine, but force to steer truck had instantly without warning, had exceeded my strength due to pinion to rack gear ratio.

Thankfully no ditches on narrow country road and shoulder was flat grassed area with no obstacles.

No thanks to modern automated control of a vehicle I am driving and riding in!

I also have to turn off a bunch of so called electronic safety features everytime I start my wife's car. Cannot permamently disable.

I don't want any software/electronics or outside source via wireless link controlling my car.

My wife's car has scared the out of us by slamming on the brakes in situations where no obstacle is in our path at high speeds. If we had been followed closely, we would have neen rear ended.

Then when visibility is poor, and you could use some help, the eyesight system shuts off and your are back to human in control.

I offer Boeing's 737 Max automated flight control system as an example!

 

[waross]

They are talking about introducing speed limiters based on GPS location

I assume,(based on several indicators) that my GPS manufacturer has scanned a program similar to google maps and picked up the speed limits from passing road signs.
Indicators:
A sign in Illinois for Highway 20. The GPS reports a 20 MPH speed limit until the next speed limit sign is passed.
When a speed limit is changed, the GPS does not seem to automatically update.
With a Garmin GPS, an in dash, Chevy GPS and a smart-phone GPS, at times there was a disagreement as to what the speed limit was.
Note that the upscale Chevy will show the GPS based speed limit in the Driver Information Display even when the GPS function is not being used.
When I bought the Garmin, I stopped using the smart-phone app and so cannot give a best out of three comparison.

Yes, the technology is here, but it may not be ready for prime time.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!