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Watched a storm blow through and finally got why we double-check our discharge lines

A buddy of mine lost a whole shift last summer on the Columbia River because a single fitting came loose during a squall and his discharge line started whipping around like crazy. Now I spend an extra 10 minutes before bad weather to walk the whole setup from the pump to the barge - has anyone else had a near miss like that from a simple connection failure?
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2 Comments
lilyb27
lilyb272d ago
That's one way to look at it, but I've been doing this long enough that I see it a little differently. Checking your lines before bad weather is just basic common sense, not some hard-learned lesson from a near miss. I've seen guys with their gear run twice as tight as yours get caught out because they trust their gear too much and ignore the real problem, which is the weather window itself. A loose fitting doesn't sink a barge, but pushing into a squall you shouldn't have is what gets people hurt. If your buddy lost a whole shift because of a single fitting, it sounds like the real issue was he was out there when he shouldn't have been in the first place.
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terry_walker
Weather judgment makes more difference than hardware most days.
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