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If you’ve been injured during a drilling accident or a loved one was killed at work on an oil and gas rig, we have the experience to bring the responsible parties to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve and need. There is no cost until we win for You. Contact us today for answers from an award-winning gas-rig accident lawyer in Morgantown, West Virginia.
West Virginia Drilling Rig Accident Lawyers
Many new jobs have been created for residents of West Virginia. Many more West Virginia jobs are done in the Morgantown region because of the rising demand for natural gas.
The positions include the oil and gas rig hand floor hands, roustabouts, floor hands, roughnecks, rig supervisors, and engineers. They also offer possibilities for contractors serving the industry with drilling pipeline construction, pipeline construction and well service, and trucking oil field supply and service.
As the oil and gas industry expands, it’s vital that the safety of the community and employees is the top priority to avoid injuries and deaths.
The severity and duration of workplace injuries within the oil and natural gas industry are generally much more significant than in other occupations. The drilling companies have to be accountable for doing all they can in their power to avoid the possibility of accidents like these.
If proper training isn’t implemented, security measures aren’t enforced, equipment isn’t properly installed, maintained, or repaired, or if communication is not in place, Oil and gas well injuries and deaths could occur.
The dangers for those working in the drilling industry are the possibility of explosions in well pads and fires, chemical burns, hazardous falls, objects falling onto the workers, head and brain injuries as well as spinal and back injuries, as well as broken or crushed feet, hands, and legs.
Based on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), accidents to gas and oil workers typically occur off-site due to motor accidents in vehicles.
They work all day long and travel long distances along rural highways to get to healthy sites. And frequently, these roads do not have security features like solid roadsides and shoulders. This not only puts workers at risk but puts at risk every motorist on the road.
West Virginia Rig Accident Lawyers representing Drilling Rig Workers for all types of oil rigs pipelines, gas injuries to rigs:
Common Accidents in the OIL and GAS industry
Electrocution – There are a variety of chemical substances or substances in the rig that can be destructive and could be conductors of electricity. Workers in the oil and gas industry could be electrocuted when they carry out a variety of tasks, including touching damaged wires.
Explosions and fire – It’s true that the gases in our environment are combustible, making explosions an everyday occurrence. Flammable gases, such as well gases hydrogen sulfide, as well as vapors, are expelled from manufacturing equipment trucks, wells, or other equipment on the surface, such as tanks and shakers for shale. The ignition sources can be open fires, electric energy, lightning-static smoking cigarettes, frictional heat cutting, welding tools, or hot surfaces. Fires and explosions are typically caused by swabbing, welding, drilling, blowouts from wells, and the failure to keep the ignition sources near the wellhead.
Falls – Since workers are usually employed on elevated rigs, falling to the ocean floor could cause fatal injuries. But, these incidents could have been prevented by creating safety structures and ensuring adequate security measures.
Contact with equipment, such as Kellies Moving pipes, tongs, rotary tables, and spinning chains, could hit rig workers and cause severe injuries to the body. If a hose connector fails and the whipping hose fails, it could be able to hit workers, making them fall or directly hurting them.
Employees often get their hands, feet, arms, or legs caught by equipment such as the rotary table, pipes, spin chains, drill strings, and tongs. Cases of entrapment like these typically result in fatal injuries.
Toxic exposure – Gas poisoning is another frequent occurrence on gas and oil drilling rigs. Gases that could harm health, like hydrogen sulfide, may accumulate in areas with little or no ventilation and hurt the workers on rigs. Anyone who is who are exposed to this gas can be vile and then become unconscious. If they don’t seek medical attention, they may end up dying. If you’re exposed to the gas and are ill, you may suffer from nervous system damage and irregular heartbeats.
Structure overloads happen when too much weight is applied to the construction rig. Rigs for Oil and gas could also fall over due to inadequate construction, installation, or degradation. People could be crushed or tossed into the ocean when a rig collapses.
According to studies, those employed in the petroleum and natural gas industry experienced the highest rate of accidents in 2015-2016, which was 148.9 per 100,000 people. Additionally, there were 349 serious injuries, far higher than the next job, which is industrial construction, which had 153 serious injuries.
Remember that no matter your Injury, you must adhere to your doctor’s advice. Follow the direction of the doctor to be more likely to receive compensation.
- Industrial Chain Injury
- Contaminated water
- Equipment and machinery malfunctions that are defective
- Collapsed Rigs
- Accidents involving trucks
- Limb Amputation and Loss
- Explosions and fires
- Blowouts
- Electrocution/electrical shock
- Falls from high places or slip-and-fall accidents
- Exposed to fracking fluids flow back, returned, created water
- Fatal Injury caused by The Oil and Gas Industry: Your Legal Rights in West Virginia
- The mortality rate for workers in the oil and gas industry is eight times higher than the rate of all sectors for workers.
Accidents can happen in hazardous areas like extraction of gas and Oil; however, the majority of accident incidents would have been avoided by more education completed, if more safety measures were implemented and enforced, and also if workers had not been working for hours beyond the threshold of exhaustion.
What are my rights If I’m injured on a gas Rig?
In most instances, the worker injured while on the job can receive certain benefits through a Workers’ Compensation claim.
Within West Virginia, if an employer has been found to have purposely put their employee in danger, which resulted in serious injuries or even death, the employee can in a case or suit against the employer’s insurance company. Company.
Suppose the workplace accident was caused by defective equipment or an unprofessional contractor. In that case, the injured worker might be entitled to additional compensation in monetary damages from a third-party manufacturer.
Morgantown, West Virginia Gas Drilling Rig Injury Lawyer
If you have concerns about injuries or sudden death from working within or around the West Virginia oil or gas drilling industry, don’t hesitate to contact our office today to arrange a free consultation.
Jeff Robinette, the firm’s founder Jeff Robinette, the firm’s founder, is also a National Board Certified Trial Attorney with more than 20 years of experience successfully handling injuries to the workplace, including coal mining injuries, gas well explosions, construction site accidents, and industrial accidents as well as construction accidents involving trucks and vehicles.
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