Potential Life-Saving Stop Work

Project Manager Rickey Guidry submitted the following message regarding a potential incident:

I just want to start this recognition off with a sincere, heartfelt thank you to the following individuals, Internal Supply Chain Supervisor Beaux Caro, Driver Larry Crosby and Shipping/Receiving Clerk Dewayne Ordoyne.

Around 5:15 p.m., a hot shot truck from a vendor pulled in front of the Danos main office carrying a six-bottle nitrogen rack. I recognized that the cargo was for one of our jobs, so I approached the driver. After some small talk, I directed him to the I&E/Valve shipping and receiving office and explained they would finish loading him there. After about an hour, I received a call from Beaux asking me if I could come to look at the bottle rack. See below pictures for reference of what was found.

Not only had the vendor loaded this onto a truck, but the driver accepted this 900–1000-pound load, with six bottles of 2400 psi compressed nitrogen in each one of them. The driver traveled from the east side of Houma to Gray, passing through congested parts of Houma during the 5:00 pm rush hour. A rough guess estimates 300 people put in harm’s way.

Not to mention this load was headed to Intracoastal City, so maybe another 1000 or so people in cars or houses endangered along that route. Take it a step further, and add 5 guys at the loading dock, the 10 guys on the boat that were bringing this out on a six-to-eight-hour boat run, the 30 people at the work location where it was to be unloaded, and our two guys who are ultimately going to be working with this bottle rack. A large number of people would have been unnecessarily endangered if this catch and stop work had not been executed.

Larry, Beaux and Dewayne could have been like the employees or the driver and looked the other way. They could have hurried through the load out to get home to their families because it was a few hours past their normal workday. Thank God they didn’t because had they not noticed the leg of the bottle rack rusted through, that broke off in my hand when they lifted it from the truck, this could have been more somber, and we could have been looking at an incident, injury or fatality.

We all encounter our fair share of danger when driving, and we always say watch out for the other guy. In this incident I can think of no truer words to describe what our three employees did. They looked out for the other guys and would not allow this “accident waiting to happen” to leave our yard. Again, this was not our product, our equipment or even originally loaded by us, but they took a bias to action and prevented what could have been a serious incident.

Beaux Caro

 Larry Crosby

 Dewayne Ordoyne