As an employee of Union Carbide India at the Bhopal plant, I know how the disaster happened. The merciless cost-cutting severely affecting materials of construction, maintenance, training, manpower and morale resulted in the disaster that was waiting to happen. Significant differences between the West Virginia, USA plant and the Bhopal, India plant show the callous disregard of the corporation for the people of the developing countries. The narrative below, if given a proper thought by the management and governments, should help in significantly reducing industrial accidents. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.