26k penalty is lower than pocket change to them.. Penalties no nothing

"The investigations can take up to a year and the agency cannot force companies to comply with its findings." That's nice... That info added to the fact that this plant has dozens of citations from TCEQ should make us all feel a little safer.

This could also be an act of industrial terrorism. For many years it has been known and anticipated that the petro industrial complex is a target rich environment that makes big news and can be carried out by a single operator. It is also thought that the easiest access to the targets is via contract labor that is not scrutinized properly..

While not impossible, very doubtful at the least. Any facility that contacts a commercial waterway, (such as the Houston Ship Channel) requires all workers to have a TWIC card. To get one you have to pass a fairly tough background check.
There are easier industrial targets that are accessible from outside any plant perimeters. A couple of RPGs could set off a conflagration beyond your wildest dreams.

In my opinion anyone, company or individual that causes death or injury to another person by either negligence or "gambling" risk and putting profit over safety. Should not only face imprisonment and fines but also should lose the business completely. In most cases of industrial accidents human error is to blame and fortunately if the business operators are knowledgeable and informed these types of accidents are rare. Over regulating a business does not protect public safety it makes running businesses more costly and less productive. Intelligent safety regulations and restrictions should be created by engineers and scientists not by politicians.

it has been reported on other instances that a normally reported malfunction, or faulty instrument, piece of equipment would be ignored because of the work involved on ones part would be time consuming and not considered necessary in ones thinking. these things are monitored for a reason, and the protocols are in place to notify of a pending issue. Most all critical processes have redundant failsafe instruments to notify of a pending issue. BUT, they are only as good as the one reading and reporting the critical warnings. that's when it becomes human failure, the technical side has been considered way before the catastrophic failure.

As is always the case after something like this, the finger pointing begins.
I have been contracting in chemical plants for many years. And yes, the DuPont plant as well.

Safety is and always has been the top priority for me and the folks that work with me. My little company has total zeros on out OSHA 300 logs, something I am very proud of especially considering the variety of plants and places we have worked.

One thing I have always stressed to the crews, "You are only as safe as the man you are working next to."
I believe when the investigation is over and all is said and done, they will find that this was preventable, as they always are.
My deepest sympathies go out to the families, friends and coworkers. I am truly sorry for your loss.

The company is liable and responsible, but this sort of thing is usually the fault of individuals who aren't qualified, in some way or another, or are indifferent. Too many people don't care to spend the time following procedures or even look for hazards. People scoff at safety regulations. I've seen this more time than I care to remember. Look at it this way. What kind of lame brain says it's his right to feel the freedom of not wearing motorcycle helmet, and who in their right mind refuses to wear seat belts? It gets worse, but from the other direction. If parents face legal consequences for not having the correct type of child car seat, why doesn't every seat in a school bus have the same safety equipment?

Good point and many times those people that are under qualified are hired because they will work cheaper, not to mention their English skills may be at a premium level which could mean life or death in a chemical plant or doctor's office.

Human error,neglegence in safety standards,to faulty equipment.That's the three biggies to look for in any accident.Du Pont has been around for a long time.I think they'll find the problem.I just hope they can fix the families.

No disrespect, but you can't fix death.

No you're right.Dead is dead.My comment should have been I hope they compensate the families.No disrespect taken.

Let's keep loosening up the EPA regulations (like I hear all the Republicans and right-winged nut jobs on this site scream for), let the corporations sell out to the cheapest bidder for safety standards or ignore them all completely and cover up "accidents", and tack a small fine on them when things blow up and kill people. After all, these were just lowly workers with lives and families- children/spouses that depended upon them.

Keep on killing our people and the environment big business. Keep giving them loopholes to do it all Republican Party.

Hey, maybe if we keep letting them get away with all of this, then our gas prices may go down a few more cents. Oh yeah, and they just created 4 more job positions.

Yeah, Keystone Pipeline, what could go wrong?!

Your first sentence proved what an incoherent rambling path you were going to take. Pretty funny though but only if you are sane.

How so? Would welcome any thoughts you have on said first statement.

While your current presentation seems genuine, the first one negated it.
The only thing that would please you is another person to argue your totally bias agenda with.
Your first sentence clearly states that you are not a person to be reasoned with.
Thanks anyway, btw....you are cleared for landing.

Wow, first of all I assure you that I'm as sane as any of the others posting on this thread (sane can be deduced as a relative term). Also, my first sentence is a precursor to a valid point as to what causes tragic events such as this to take place in big corporations. This point is further backed by the the reporting in the second portion of the article with the subheading of "History of Violations".

I know it can be quite scary when someone that has a differing political opinion from yours begins to make sense. That may be why you feel the need to dismiss me as "crazy" or "delusional". Let me be clear, it is you that could be in fact delusional if you think that these companies have people's best interest at heart and not the bottom line.

Let me be clear............
Oh but of course O Mighty, All Knowing, All Powerful, Absolute Being.

Thank you kindly for noticing. :)

Your Statement is not true. You should be ashamed of yourself for using these great guys death to make a lowlife political statement.

What makes me any different from the others that do the same thing on this site? My statement is completely true. I've lost family members from the same sort of negligence from these companies, so don't tell me that I should feel ashamed, I don't in the least. And why is my statement "lowlife"? Because it differs from yours? I'm not using anyone's death for any sort of political agenda. I'm not running for office here. I'm simply stating the exact cause of these poor working individual's tragic death.

You do understand that the greater percentage of workplace accidents/deaths are a result of the employee ignoring safety standards, and not of the company, right?

I do understand that a great deal could be that, but YOU understand that many of these places have supervisors that simply ignore safety regulations and refuse to replace worn out and broken machinery until something goes awry.

Many, not most...totally different, unless you are a lib; then the minority rules

Well, third grade comprehension tells me that the main idea of this article is that the company has a history of violations and does not at all suggest that the employees ignored safety standards. This a factual statement that has no bearing on whether I'm a liberal or conservative.

What's not true about it?

Better yet, what is true about it?

Spoken like a complete kool-aid addict...

I am guessing you don't pay taxes. I am guessing you have a full time capitalistic job, wait that means you pay taxes. Dude, we follow the federal regulations. It was those wanting to discredit Perry and his bid for new companies saying that we don't. We HAVE to follow the federal government regulations. think....

Why is it when someone wants to express their opinion about saving the environment and make any sort of anti-Republican statement on this site, all of the rest of the commentators here begin to discredit them as unAmerician, non-tax payer, or welfare baby? Just because I want a clean world to pass down to my children doesn't mean that I am a "libertard" to use a fictional word I see posted here quite a bit.

Yes, I pay taxes, hold a full time job (have worked since I was 16), hold a degree (which I payed off all of my student loans to attain), and have paid every single debt that I have ever owed. I am completely liquid. (Which is way more than I bet most of the commentators on this site can say).

It sickens me to see these corporations use lax safety regulations to not protect their workers or our environment. You think I don't know? My personal family has suffered the effects of this just as this poor family. So don't tell me that I do not know what I am talking about. I have lost family members due to this disgusting sort of negligence all in the name to save a dollar. A dollar might I add that doesn't get passed down to the consumer, just pad the pocket of the CEOs. Blood money.

Nothing like blood diamonds. I am happy to be a part of the capitalistic world. I have lived overseas and seen how those people live. I am not reading your original comment but... We have many federal regulations w/o adding state ones. I do appreciate OSHA but EPA is starting to scare me. Really scare me.

Why is it that the libs (read YOU) always claim racism when they criticize anything this admin does? Why is it when the right slams dems in political races, the dems start demanding working across the aisle, but never allow a vote (except in the pipeline fiasco, to save a dem senator) while they have maintained the majority? Tell me skeeball, you criticize anything from the right; what are your suggestions for the US to build itself back to its former self. And don't suggest more rules and regulations that you libs have to pass in order to know what's in it. Real solutions for your perceived problems.

I did not say anything about racism in any of my statements. I do not slam everything from the right, in fact, I'm not hugely impressed with the left right now. I do not have the answers to put this country back together because to me it sounds like all of the politicians are a bunch of crying, squabbling, toddlers that are not willing to negotiate to help this country maintain any stability. They just dig in their heels and refuse to help anyone, thus grinding the whole country to a stop. I blame both sides for that, but the right is notorious for giving big business tax breaks and loopholes to line more PACs and their own pockets because the majority of them are large stakeholders. They operate from the famous "trickle down" theory that clearly doesn't work due to cooperate greed.

I understand that YOU didn't make a statement of racism in these posts, however, you, as a lib, are guilty by association. Just as you find all politicians of refusing to help anyone (even though with libs in charge have increased entitlement payments to double what they were 6 years ago -that sounds to me that your side helps, in a weird manner, a lot of people. If tax breaks were not afforded to businesses, then there would be much fewer jobs because companies would be, and are, shipping work overseas. Socialist liberalism didn't work when tried by the 1st group of Europeans arrived on the Mayflower. It still doesn't work. There is nothing free in this world; someone pays for it. It isn't the government; government is funded by taxpayers. As a side note, Abdul seems to have a crush on you.

Sorry, I don't buy into the whole guilt by association deal. I'm an individual with individual discerning opinions that vary from topic to topic. Maybe this is the problem with the political sides, instead of lumping everyone into one neat tied up package, we should look at each individual situation and respect differing opinions on that situation regardless of which political party you identify yourself with. I know as well as anyone that nothing is free. I believe that an honest days work deserves and honest days pay, as I stated in above statements. I've paid all of my debts and worked all of my life. However, I do not think that these corporations should be allowed to put their workers in harmful situations and get away with it. Why is this such a controversial statement?

To answer your side note, maybe Abdul simply appreciates common sense statements.

4 dead? PBHTTT!!!!!!

That's nothing, you should see what BP can do. Rookies!

you are way off base, comparing this with the BP incident. This was a working plant with all the regulations met to be running. This was more than likely a case of my already stated comment. BP, on the other hand was working on a milestone schedule that had penalties for every day not achieved over approved schedules. Safety protocols were overlooked to met these milestones. They are heavily weighed with dollar signs. This incident was more than likely the reported warnings from instruments were ignored because of A) known false signals i.e., faulty instrument, B) laziness on the part of an operator.

Hey, don't forget the Mexicans that dumped a couple gallons of cooking oil into the drain. Deport them! Let these guys stay!

You got my vote, deport them all. They're shotty workmanship is probably responsible anyway. One probably turned the valve the wrong way because he was too green to read English.

You know, if they can use Illegals, then they will. I think that means when they uglied up Alaska the illegals were, what, cannucks?

But any way you look at it, companies that ignore safety when it costs too much, those with the idea it is better to run the wheels off first, these companies have no respect.

They do not respect the lives of people working for them. They do not respect the lives of people who depend on the land. They do not respect the laws of the country they operate in.

Any penalty under $100,000,000 is of no importance to large companies.

What is the deal with previous violations? I'm sure the news media has previous violations that have or could have caused injury to people in the surrounding area. Are we looking for something to make a news story with? Isn't the news media happy that something dreadful has occurred and killed people so that they don't have to make up news stories.

I can assure you, I'm not happy with the fact four people died. I feel terribly for their families and loved ones.

As an investigative reporter, sometimes past company action is important. If you don't believe that, that's your prerogative. I think it's always important to look at what has happened previously because it can, in some cases, show a pattern. Maybe it shows other things.

I'm a firm believer in giving viewers all the facts. I don't want to be the one saying, in my opinion this incident was important and this one wasn't, so I'm going to withhold information. I think it's important to put the facts out there and let viewers make the decision. I'll let them decide what's important.

I don't agree that we made up any story here. That's a pretty strong allegation to make against someone whose work is based on honesty and accuracy.

Please don't let my honest response here make you think I don't appreciate you sharing your point of view. It's important that viewers do so. For that, I thank you.

I have worked almost 30 years with the corporation. Since 2010 in which Ellen Kullman became CEO six workers have been killed. Four at La Porte, one at Belle, WV and one at the Yerkes site near Buffalo. one life lost is too many let alone six, yet the problems exist for the supposed leader in safety.

Past history and violations do have there place in this story and can show a pattern of how how corporations continue to operate or how they have changed. At this point it appears that DuPont has chosen not to change the behavior.

The only real things that matters is that the six outstanding human beings are no longer with us and that should make anyone including Ellen Kullman lose sleep at night.

See this video from the CSB (Chemical Safety Board) to see if you think that previous violations are relevant.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Classy response, Jace. Maybe you could report more on why the Chemical Safety Board has no teeth to force compliance and how we can change that. I know a lot of Texans are getting fed up with the lack of oversight in industrial settings.

Jace, I wish now that I had stayed on last night to see your response. The big problem I have with your story is that it seamed a little premature and lacking. I would have thought you could have found more to make it news worthy.

Past relevant action is worthy of note. All but one are not.

I believe in you and your desire to report the facts.

I may believe in him but channel 2 when it comes to counting illegals, editing or manipulating 911 tapes are traitors of this country. They are 100% race baiters.

The news is very liberal. I just think Jace tries hard to give both sides. Maybe not but it feels so.