A decision to hasten the restart of a pesticide production process and bypass safety controls led to a tragic accident on Aug. 28, 2008, at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, W.Va., concludes the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), in a report released on Jan. 20. The accident destroyed a key pesticide manufacturing unit, killed two workers, required 40,000 people living near the plant to shelter in place, and revealed gross inadequacies in Bayer’s accident emergency response operations...Most critical, the report says, was the intentional overriding of...[a] system that was designed to prevent a runaway reaction inside a...pressure vessel...[The] vessel overpressurized and exploded..., sending vessel pieces flying...The resulting fire...burned for four hours while company officials kept local residents in the dark...In the months that followed, Bayer officials repeatedly stated that no toxic material had been released during the accident. They blocked CSB from making portions of its investigation public... “As a manufacturer, we have an obligation to ensure our operations are conducted under the highest standards of safety,” Steven Hedrick, Bayer vice president, said at a community meeting on Jan. 20. “On that night in August, we did not live up to those obligations....” He then described several changes that plant management has taken since the accident...