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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Crash of a truck carrying hydrogen cylinders

Event

Event ID
1227
Quality
Description

A lorry carrying a rack with compressed hydrogen cylinders overturned on a highway. The rack impacted the ground, and possibly deformed, but did not lose its contents. A fire developed: it is unclear if the cylinders leaked and the hydrogen ignited contributing to the fire. The emergency caused an 11-hour closure of the highway.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
fire
Macro-region
Asia
Country
Japan
Date
Component involved
valve (generic)
Failure mode
rupture
Initiating cause
impact, rollover, crash
Root CAUSE analysis

Since the role of he cylinders inthis road accident is unclear, The only indisputable ROOT CAUSE is a wrong manoeuvre of the driver.

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
31/10/2025

Facility

Application
Hydrogen transport and distribution
Sub-application
H2 delivery to customers
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

CGH2 cylinders truck

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Process pressure range [MPa]
medium to high pressure (10 to 50 MPa)
Location type
Open
Location
highway or similar
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
1
Post-event summary

The truck was destroyed

Emergency action

it seems that the truck was left burning.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Release temperature [°C]
25
Release pressure [MPa]
20
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink

RRKK news on YouTube

A truck carrying liquid hydrogen overturned and caught fire on the Kyushu Expressway, closing the...

(accesed Novemebr 2025)