An explosion which occurred December 7, 2009, at the NDK Crystal manufacturing company in Belvidere, Illinois, fatally injuring a truck driver at a nearby gas station on the Illinois Tollway, resulted from corrosion in the walls of a pressure vessel, which went uninspected for years. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released those findings last week in a draft investigation report.

The CSB also released a safety video on the accident entitled “Falling through the Cracks,” which utilizes a computer animation to depict the sequence of events and investigation findings. CSB videos may be viewed at www.CSB.gov or www.youtube.com/uscsb.