Criminal Probe Launched in Deadly Explosion at Conn. Power Plant
A criminal investigation has been opened into a gas explosion that killed five and injured a dozen workers at a power plant in Connecticut on Sunday, reports the Associated Press.
“If everything went right, we wouldn’t all be here right now,” said Middletown Mayor Sebastian Guiliano, apparently at a press conference late this afternoon. “There’s a point where negligence raises to the level of criminal conduct, and that’s what we’re investigating.”
A hearing over the accident at the Kleen Energy plant under construction there is planned by the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, reports the Hartford Courant in an article detailing safety concerns.
The cause of the explosion, which occurred as workers were clearing gas lines of air, isn’t known. However, authorities reportedly are looking into whether a welding torch or electric equipment that might have ignited gas at the scene was turned off at the time.
At least one lawmaker on the education and labor committee pointed the finger at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for not aggressively pursuing its oversight role. according to another Courant article.
“The problem is … that OSHA, over the last eight years, has almost ceased to exist in terms of a functioning agency. It’s issued almost no workplace regulations literally, in the last eight or nine years,” says Rep. Joe Courtney, a state lawmaker who is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. “So our committee has had to pull up some of these issues that have been stuck in the bureaucratic process and bring them out as acts of Congress.”
However, other federal and state regulatory agencies also have responsibilities concerning not only the Kleen Energy plant but other sites where similar accidents have occurred as gas lines were being cleared in recent years.
Additional coverage:
News Times: “Explosion underscores gray area in regulatory oversight”
Wall Street Journal: “Blast Probe Looks at Gas-Line Clearing “
