Oilfield accidents can cause catastrophic injuries, and many injured workers will never be able to work again. These injuries can be life-changing emotionally and financially or even fatal. As skilled oilfield accident lawyers, we know how to investigate your claims, examine the evidence, and determine the best case to be made for damages. We will pursue every opportunity available to get you the compensation you need and deserve. If you or someone you love is an oil rig or oilfield worker that suffered serious injuries while on the job, our oilfield accident lawyers can help.
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Understanding Oilfield Accident Injuries and Duty of Care
Oil and gas accidents can have a devastating impact on oilfield workers and their family members. Oilfield accidents can, and often do, result in catastrophic injury, or workplace fatalities, also known as wrongful death. In fact, the occupational fatality rate in the oil and gas industry is seven times higher than that of any other industry. Oilfield drilling work has a fatal injury rate of 46 per 100,000 workers. Catastrophic injuries such as amputations, spinal cord injuries and Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are all too common in oil and gas jobs.
Common Causes of Texas Oilfield Accidents
There are virtually limitless causes of oilfield accidents however, frequently, Texas oilfield accidents are caused by negligence. When this is the case, the liable parties should be held responsible for the damages they’ve caused. This can be done through a personal injury lawsuit. Whether it’s due to machinery malfunction, spills, or other environmental factors, human error is usually found at the root of any workplace accident. Proper investigation and questioning can help find the truth about what caused a worker’s injury.
Types of Oilfield Accidents
When you combine fast-paced, challenging, and dangerous oilfield work with the heavy equipment, tools, and machinery used in the oilfield, it can bring about accidents that lead to serious oilfield injuries and sometimes even death.
Exposure to toxic chemicals and materials – Refineries, drilling sites, and oilfields all emit toxic fumes that can harm workers internally and/or externally if they are not given the proper training or the proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
When oil rigs go down, they can hurt more than one person and can result in a workplace fatality. Improper maintenance of rigs or failing to adhere to the rules regarding how to check rigs for stability are dangerous but unfortunately, common corners oilfield companies like to cut in order to put profits before people.
Well blowouts – The most devastating types of oilfield accidents are blowouts and explosions. A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems fail.
A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems fail.
Fires and explosions are caused by flammable gases and fire starters. Oilfield explosions and fires that are sudden and unpredictable. It is hard – if not impossible – for workers to get out of the way fast enough to avoid being catastrophically injured in an oilfield fire. If hot oil accidentally gets on a worker’s skin, especially without proper protection burn injuries can be severe and even fatal.
Transportation – Natural resources extracted from the ground have to be transported from the drilling site. This is where oil rig trucks come in. These big rigs can experience explosions as well since they play a huge role in transporting workers, drilling equipment, waste, and oil and gas from the oilfield. Workplace trucking accidents can also occur when equipment is not properly secured on a truck. The roadways around an oilfield can be rocky and unkempt as well, causing truck accidents similar to those that would happen on any bad road.
Spills– If any oil is released or spilled, this enhances the chances of workers slipping or having equipment fall on them. In addition, if just a little spark occurs, it can cause the spill to turn into a huge fire, the likes of which could happen very quickly.
In addition, other common causes of oil and gas accidents include:
Being trapped in confined spaces
Electrocution
Equipment malfunctions or Equipment failures
Failure to perform regular maintenance checks
Fracking accidents
Hazardous chemical exposure
Inadequate operations and safety training
Moving heavy piping
Oilfield truck accidents
Release of dangerous fumes
Rig collapse
Trips, slips, and falls
Truck and vehicle collisions
Use of defective machinery
Building an Oilfield Accident Personal Injury Claim
The fact is that oil and gas companies have a duty to keep workers safe.
Both oilfield owners and operators, and the companies that make oilfield equipment have a duty of care to make sure their drilling and extraction equipment is manufactured to high standards and maintained at those high standards.
Liability or fault must be shown in order for an injured oilfield worker to recover monetary damages from the negligent person or parties. If a reasonably prudent person would not have done something a defendant did or if a defendant did not do something a reasonably prudent person would have done, that establishes negligence. Specifically, with an oilfield accident case, there could be several different liable parties because there are a lot of different individuals and businesses involved in oilfield drilling and oil exploration operations, including:
Oilfield owner/operator
Oil companies
Drilling operators
Equipment rental companies
Exploration companies
Machine operators
Oil pumpers
Refinery workers
Saltwater disposal facilities
Truck drivers
Oilfield equipment companies and/or manufacturers
Contractors or subcontractors working in the area
Regulatory agencies responsible for inspecting equipment and property
Maintenance companies
Your personal injury lawyers will investigate the oilfield accident, gather all the necessary evidence, identify all potential defendants, contact these parties and their insurance companies, file your case in court, take depositions (recorded interviews) of each defendant and any potential witnesses, send discovery requests to each defendant, retain expert witnesses, negotiate, take your case to trial if necessary, secure the highest monetary recovery possible, and, most importantly, keep you informed of the progress of your claim.
Your personal injury attorneys may need to hire expert witnesses such as an independent medical professional who can write a report concerning your injuries, treatment, and any future medical care. An oilfield accident “reconstructionist” may be needed to give an expert report on how the accident happened, where occupational safety procedures followed, were safety regulations observed, and what steps should have been taken to prevent the accident. An economist can help to prove lost wages in the past, any ongoing reduction or loss in income, and any future or other economic damages.
Types of Compensation Injured Oilfield Workers Can Recover
Our legal team will make sure each of our clients recovers the most financial compensation possible for their losses following an oilfield accident. As part of this process, we will ask for damages including both special (economic) and general (non-economic) damages. We will fight for your legal right to recover the following types of workplace injury damages:
Current medical bills related to the injury
Future medical expenses
Physical therapy and/or rehabilitation
Cost of medical devices and/or prescription medication
Temporary or permanent disability
Household expenses
Pain and suffering
Loss of quality of life
The total amount of compensation available to oilfield accident victims varies depending on the facts of each case. Some such factors can include the severity of the injuries, how long it takes for the injured worker to recover, the total amount of lost income, and whether there are resulting effects that cannot be medically improved upon.
The total amount of compensation available to oilfield accident victims varies depending on the facts of each case.
Our attorneys will work with medical and economic experts to properly calculate all expected losses so that we can vigorously negotiate on your behalf.
Understanding Workers’ Compensation and Non-Subscribers in Texas
Technically speaking, oilfield workers who suffered a work-related injury are entitled to the medical benefits of their employer’s workers’ compensation insurance coverage or another form of employer-paid funding that will cover medical expenses, lost wages, and other costs during their recovery. However, even with workers’ compensation, many comp payments are insufficient to financially cover all accident-related medical treatment suffered by the injured oil worker.
When an employer subscribes to workplace insurance coverage, a worker is not typically able to file a direct lawsuit against them per the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act. However, if the victim is able to show that a third party was at fault for the accident, this may allow them to seek full compensation for the accident. Viable third parties that can be held liable can include property owners, engineers, architects, contractors and subcontractors, electricians, and equipment manufacturers, among other parties. All of these are potential third-party defendants that can be sued directly and outside of the workers’ compensation system for their own negligence and fault.
Texas does not require employers to subscribe to our state’s workers’ compensation system. This does not let employers off the hook, though, as employers are still responsible for providing a safe workplace for their employees. If a worker is injured on the job and their employer does not subscribe to workers’ compensation, oilfield workers still have a right to file a lawsuit against their employer to recover compensation, regardless of whether the employer carries a private or other liability policy. Only true Texas workers’ comp acts as a bar to a civil lawsuit for oilfield accidents.
Contact the Injury Attorneys at Liggett Law Group Today for a Free Consultation
If you or someone you love was injured or wrongfully killed in an oilfield accident, Lubbock oilfield accident lawyer Ted Liggett can help you and your family. Our law firm can help you during this complicated process to get you and your family the compensation oilfield injury victims need and deserve.
There are virtually limitless causes of oilfield accidents however, frequently, Texas oilfield accidents are caused by negligence. When this is the case, the liable parties should be held responsible for the damages they’ve caused. This can be done through a personal injury lawsuit. Whether it’s due to machinery malfunction, spills, or other environmental factors, human error is usually found at the root of any workplace accident. Proper investigation and questioning can help find the truth about what caused a worker’s injury.
Well blowouts – The most devastating types of oilfield accidents are blowouts and explosions. A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems fail.
Our legal team will make sure each of our clients recovers the most financial compensation possible for their losses following an oilfield accident. As part of this process, we will ask for damages including both special (economic) and general (non-economic) damages. We will fight for your legal right to recover the following types of workplace injury damages: