Louisiana counts with the Louisiana Offshore Port, a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico located twenty nine kilometers, or eighteen nautical miles, off the cost of Louisiana near the town of Port Fourchon. It provides tanker offloading and temporary storage services for crude oil transported on some of the largest tankers in the world. The Louisiana Offshore Port handles about thirteen percent of the United States’ foreign oil and is connected by pipeline to fifty percent of the country’s refining capability. This translates into thousands of men and women engaging on dangerous jobs every day. Injuries and accidents, such as fires and explosions that take place at sea fall under a different law than those occurred in-land.
Louisiana is a place of high importance for the oil and gas industry, counting with four hundred and fifty eight million barrels of oil in known reserves, amounting for two percent of the United States’ total, and ten billion cubic feet of natural gas counting as four percent of the country’s total. Only in Louisiana the oil and gas industry hires an average of 330.000 jobs, both direct and indirect and has a seventy billion dollars impact on the local economy.
Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry is a very dangerous one, wherein many accidents, disasters, injuries and even the dead of employees take place.
The main contributing factors to the dangers of the oil and gas industry is the flammable nature of both substances it deals with, but the toxic fumes they produce must be taken into account, too. The main hazards offshore workers have to face are transportation accidents, fires and explosions, getting caught between objects, falls and working in confined spaces as signaled by the Occupation Safety and Health Administration.
Offshore accidents can leave workers and their loved ones exposed to a onslaught of long term consequences, such as mounting medical bills, injury, chronic pain and possible disability. In the most extreme of cases these accidents can even lead to the dead of those involved in them.
But, often times, offshore accidents have a human factor to them that comes into play whenever a person, company or entity is negligent or irresponsible in a way that affects and compromises the safe development and finishing of the task at hand. The following are a set of examples:
- Accidents that involve falls caused by insufficient protection, carelessness or weather conditions.
- Preventable exposure to toxic or harmful materials and fumes.
- Leaking or uncontrolled flammable materials that lead to explosions or fires.
- Lack of proper gear and safety clothing to prevent serious accidents and / or injuries.
- Engine failures due to lack of maintenance.
- Defective equipment.
- Un-prepared or under-trained workers being charged with the management of heavy machinery.
- Operator negligence that leads to accidents in helicopters or water vehicles.
These kind of accidents are relatively common in the oil and gas industry. From 2009 to 2016 twenty nine people lost their lives in this kind of accidents, including the eleven workers who were killed in the Deep Water Horizon disaster. Since 2016 the fear that these accidents will become more frequent has taken roots, in light of the Trump administration intention of rolling back many of the safety regulations that were enacted in the wake of the, before mentioned, Deep Water Horizon explosion including vital well control rules, as well as those that require third party inspections of critical equipment.
Fortunately, offshore workers are not left in the dark by the law when facing the consequences of work-place accidents. The Merchant Marine act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act or Maritime Law, is a federal law in effect in the United States that serves to protect the interests of offshore workers, allowing them the chance to seek compensation should they find themselves involved in any kind of accident leading to injury.
The Jones Act covers injuries that include: spinal cord injuries, injuries that lead to brain trauma or damage, burns, lacerations, traumatic amputations, broken bones or lung damage caused by inhalation of toxic chemical fumes. Workers that suffer injuries in offshore drilling facilities benefit from the coverage of Merchant Marine Act.
The Jones act gives offshore workers the right to sue ship owners, captains, fellow crew members and companies or entities if any of mentioned parties’ negligence caused the injury or accident, or if the vessel was not in conditions that would be considered safe. To qualify as someone that falls under the protection of the Jones Act an employee must have what is described as a substantial connection to the vessel in question, both in time duration and nature. One of the most important provisions of the Maritime Law is known as “Maintenance and Cure” a type of worker’s compensation that provides the injured offshore employee with a weekly pay of medical benefits and wage.
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Offshore employees that have been injured at sea may qualify for compensation under the Jones act, as may be the case of the surviving family members of those who die as a result of an offshore accident. The Merchant Marine Act protects workers from having to pay out of pocket for any medical treatments needed due to injuries maintained at their work places. After an offshore drilling accident workers affected, and especially those result injured, must work with an specialized lawyer in their area to fight for the maximum compensation possible through all means available.
