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  • 2 years ago
The Managing Director of the safety company which participated in the response to the Paria tragedy via one of its drones says it's motto is, "lose a drone, not a life”.

Speaking with Juhel Browne at the 2024 Energy Conference on Tuesday, the top executive of HSSL Safety Systems says that it has reinvested in technology that would mitigate putting people into dangerous locations .

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00:00 "We as a company have invested a bit more now in equipment to allow the equipment to
00:05 go into certain areas without putting man or manpower into those areas.
00:11 So the intent here as I said, our motto is 'Lose a drone, not a life'."
00:16 The Managing Director of HSSL Safety Systems Ltd, Anthony Vera, speaking with TV6 News
00:22 at the 2024 Energy Conference, about two years after he told us that one of the company's
00:27 robotic crawlers, the BT-150, was used in response to the tragic incident in February
00:34 of 2022 at the state-owned Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited facility that led to the deaths
00:41 of four LMCS divers.
00:44 During the opening of the 2024 Energy Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain
00:48 on Monday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley visited the HSSL booth as he toured the trade
00:54 show area.
00:55 TV6 News spoke with Mr Vera on Tuesday.
00:59 "Invested in a four-inch crawler.
01:03 So as it stands right now, this looks fairly big and this has been configured to 20-inch
01:08 pipelines.
01:09 But we can reconfigure this to four inches.
01:16 So this crawler can go with a reconfiguration into pipes as small as four inches."
01:23 He recalled how HSSL became involved in the response to the tragic incident at Paria's
01:28 No. 36 sea-line riser on Booth No. 6 in Pointe-a-Pierre.
01:33 "We were requested to insert a crawler into the pipeline and provided some data.
01:40 Yes, very tragic.
01:42 Once again, as I said last year and I'm going to say again this year, I would talk some
01:48 prayers over the families of those who lost their lives and the survivors."
01:52 The Commission of Inquiry in its report recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions consider
01:57 charging Paria with what is commonly known as corporate manslaughter.
02:02 The Energy Minister told Parliament on Friday that Cabinet referred the Commission's report
02:07 to the DPP.
02:08 Mr Vera gave a general comment.
02:10 "The report has been laid in Parliament last week.
02:15 I think it has shaken up a lot of people.
02:18 I think industry is a lot more aware of this accident and we want no sort of another incident
02:28 of that sort."
02:29 Mr Vera said that among the new tech that HSSL has invested in is a big drone with a
02:34 methane sensor and a drone with a UT sensor for ultrasonic testing of tanks and superstructures.
02:40 "So we're actually about maybe 150 feet up in the air at that point and you will see
02:45 on the video when we zoom out the actual height of the tower.
02:50 So we save people from going up there with scaffold, rope access, etc. by utilizing this
02:55 technology."
02:56 TV6 News asked Mr Vera if among his clients or in the local energy sector in general there
03:03 is now a lot more focus on safety.
03:05 "Definitely, definitely.
03:07 We've seen a heightened awareness now and a lot more interest in what you have available
03:14 that we didn't have a year ago or two years ago."
03:17 The energy sector in Trinidad and Tobago is comprised of state-owned and privately-owned
03:21 companies.
03:23 Jule Brown, TV6 News.
03:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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