About 2:15 p.m., c.s.t., on November 4, 1982, a tile plow installing field drainage tile on a farm located 4 miles west of Hudson, Iowa, struck and punctured a well marked 20-inch-diameter natural gas transmission pipeline. Natural gas escaping at about 820 psig ignited immediately, and the ensuing explosion and fire killed five persons, destroyed five pieces of excavation machinery and two pickup trucks, and burned several acres of soybean stubble. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the puncture of a 20-inch-diameter gas transmission pipeline by a contractor's tile plow, due to the contractor's failure to inform the pipeline company and to have the depth of the pipeline checked at a new crossing point when he changed his work plans. The accident might have been avoided had the pipeline company inspector remained on the job site until after tiling operations in the vicinity of the pipeline had been completed.
Pipeline Accident Report - Northern Natural Gas Company Pipeline Puncture, Explosion and Fire, Hudson, Iowa, November 4, 1982
1983
50 pages
Report
No indication
English