Event
- Event ID
- 1008
- Quality
- Description
A tanker-tractor carrying liquid hydrogen overturned and lost vacuum insulation. The hydrogen boiled and vented, but there was no ignition.
The potential for fire or explosion, however, led to precautions that did cause considerable disruption: the interstate highway where the accident occurred was closed and nearby homes and businesses were evacuated.- Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- leak no ignition
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- Component involved
- cryogenic insulation shell
- Failure mode
- rupture, no ignition
- Initiating cause
- impact, rollover, crash
- Root CAUSE analysis
INITIATING cause was a traffic accident. In absence of information on drivers and driver behaviours, the ROOT CAUSE can be attributed generically to a human error (wrong manoeuvre)
- Root causes
- Date entry in HIAD
- 10/10/2024
Facility
- Application
- Hydrogen transport and distribution
- Sub-application
- LH2 tanker
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
vacuum thermal insulation
- Process temperature range [C]
- cryogenic temperature (below -50°C)
- Process pressure range [MPa]
- low to medium pressure (below 2 MPa)
- Location type
- Open
- Location
- highway or similar
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
The sources do no specify if the tanker was full. It can be nevertheless understood from the statement that the hydrogen boiled off and was release that the tanker was still liquid hydrogen to be delivered to a customer (on their return travel, the LH2 tankers contain normally only could gaseous hydrogen).
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Post-event summary
no consequence, but local evacuation
- Emergency action
The interstate highway was closed and nearby homes and businesses were evacuated.
In-depth data
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Released amount (kg)
- 3800
- Release pressure [MPa]
- 1
- Probable IGNITION SOURCE
References
- Sources categories
- Scientific article
- Reference & weblink
Ringland, Safety Issues for Hydrogen Powered Vehicle, SANDIA REPORTSAND94-8226
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10136126
(accessed October 2025)Incident I-1987090240 of the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration PHMSA:
https://portal.phmsa.dot.gov/analytics/saw.dll?Portalpages&PortalPath=%…
(accessed September 2024)
