Riverview, FL — A man was hospitalized after being burned by phosphoric acid at a fertilizer plant in Riverside, Florida, on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. The accident took place at the Mosaic plant, located just off Highway 41.
News reports didn’t have details on exactly how the accident took place, saying only that the man fell into a tank of phosphoric acid while helping to prepare it for maintenance.
The man was pulled from the tank and the acid — which was about 175 Fahrenheit — was washed off. He was taken to Tampa General Hospital and is reported to be in critical condition.
The accident is currently being investigated.
Scene of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary
All I can say is wow. This is not the sort of thing you hear about every day. The news reports I read on this say that the plant manager has said that the plant’s safety procedures are going to be reviewed with all the employee’s, but I have to wonder if that’s what really caused this accident. Do the rules need to be reviewed, or do the rules just need to be better? If there’s an open tank of phosphoric acid burning on 175 degrees, there’s no way a worker should have been able to been able to get close enough to the tank to fall into it. Maybe my standards are just too high with this sort of thing, but you have to ask, why are accidents like this even allowed to happen? It seems like I see so many accidents like this that are completely preventable.
— Grossman Law Offices
