Books with author Andrea Hopkins

In Failure to Learn: The BP Texas City Refinery Disaster, respected OHS expert Professor Andrew Hopkins discusses the causes of a major explosion at the Texas City Oil Refinery on March 23, 2005, that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. Failure to Learn also analyses the similarities between this event and the Longford Gas Plant explosion in Victoria in 1998, featured in his earlier book Lessons from Longford. Professor Andrew Hopkins is being recognized by the European Process Safety Centre in October 2008, in recognition of his contribution to safety. Professor Hopkins is the first winner to receive the award, outside of Europe, which is a demonstration of the impact of his valuable work worldwide. Andrew has been awarded a prize by the European Process Safety Centre for "extraordinary contribution to process safety", the first time this has been awarded outside of Europe. He also appears in the US Chemical Safety Board film on Texas City and has been invited to appear in a subsequent film. Professor Hopkins poses questions such as: Why was the number of victims so large? Who was blamed for the explosion? What were the real causes? Had lessons been learnt from the earlier incident at Longford? Has anything changed as a result of the Texas City accident? The foreword for the book was written by Carolyn Merritt, chair of the CSB at the time of the accident and subsequent inquiry.

Disastrous Decisions: The Human and Organisational Causes of the Gulf of Mexico Blowout takes the reader into the realm of human and organisational factors that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. This event resulted in the loss of 11 lives in the explosions and fire, the sinking of the rig and untold damage to the environment and to the livelihood of Gulf residents. It is important to know what people did, but even more important to know why they did it, so this book attempts to "get inside the heads" of decision-makers and understand how they themselves understood the situations they were in. It also seeks to discover what it was in their organisational environment that encouraged them to think and act as they did. Professor Andrew Hopkins is an internationally-renowned presenter, author and consultant in the field of industrial safety and accident analysis. Professor Hopkins has been awarded a prize by the European Process Safety Centre for "extraordinary contribution to process safety", the first time this has been awarded outside of Europe. Professor Hopkins has been involved in various government occupational health and safety (OHS) reviews and completed consultancy work for major companies in the resources sector, as well as speaking regularly to audiences around the world about the causes of major accidents. He delivers presentations to organizations both within and outside Australia, and the topics include the BP Texas City Refinery Disaster, Mindful Leadership, Lessons from Longford (on the Esso Gas Plant Explosion) and Safe Behaviour Programs. He is a recipient of the 2008 EPSC Process Safety award. Professor Hopkins was an expert witness at the Royal Commission into the causes of the Esso's gas plant at Longford in Victoria in 1998. More recently he was a consultant to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) during its investigation into the 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City Refinery and was an expert commentator in the CSB film about the disaster.

The Vikings worshiped mainly by sacrifice. That meant giving up something of value, including jewelry, weapons, ships, animals, and even people. The book describes a Norse universe steeped in mythology. There are gods and goddesses such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and the evil Loki, and there are descriptions of the great halls where they reside. By A.D. 15, most Scandinavian people had converted to Christianity.

During the Middle Ages, tournaments and jousting were both an occasion for public festivities and a way of training knights. Describing various types of combat with the use of primary source material and magnificent illuminated manuscripts, this book provides a look into the jousts and tournaments that entertained the people and trained knights for war. Though considered mock combat, many knights lost their lives during these jousts and melees.