Root cause analysis and investigation support modeled on federal protocols. Identify failures, determine causation, and build defensible findings for your organization.
Discuss an InvestigationAfter a pipeline incident, the physical cause is usually found quickly: a struck service line, a cracked main, a failed regulator. Investigations that stop there answer what failed, but not why the failure was possible or whether it will happen again.
Federal rules require operators to investigate failures and incidents to determine their causes and contributing factors, and to carry the lessons into procedures, training, and manuals (49 CFR 192.617). Meeting that obligation means looking past the last failure to the conditions that allowed it.
Evidence, records, and electronic data should be secured before they are altered or discarded. Where a covered employee's performance may have contributed, post-accident drug and alcohol testing has strict time limits: as soon as possible and no later than 32 hours for drug testing, with documentation required if alcohol testing is not done within two hours.
49 CFR Part 199Identify each barrier that could have prevented the event or reduced its consequences, such as records, locating, field verification, equipment readiness, and emergency response, and determine who controlled each and how it failed.
Prior leaks at the same location, unresolved system exceptions, repeat audit findings, and employee concerns show whether a condition was known or knowable before the incident.
Label each finding by its basis: a regulatory requirement, the operator's own procedure, industry practice, a documented fact, or an opinion drawn from them. Corroborate key findings with more than one type of evidence.
A condition should be treated as a predictable precursor only when the evidence shows it existed, had a credible link to the failure, was known or knowable, persisted, and presented an opportunity to intervene.
A post-incident critique that addresses response timing but not cause, or excludes key participants, will not prevent recurrence. Emergency plans require operators to review whether procedures were effectively followed after each emergency.
49 CFR 192.615(b)(3)Clearpath provides root cause analysis and investigation support modeled on federal protocols. Our approach combines federal pipeline safety enforcement experience with more than 15 years of law enforcement investigative experience, and follows Clearpath's published Safety Culture Assessment Methodology.
The result is findings that identify failures, determine causation where the evidence supports it, and hold up to review.
Confidential initial consultations. Nationwide availability.