Several workers were injured and one has died, in an explosion at an oil rig in Burleson county, Texas near Deanville-southwest of Bryan. The oil well blowout happened on County Road 127. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the once involved.
Picture by abc-25 Kxxv Central Texas
When tragic accidents such as an oil well blowout happen and serious injuries or worse are involved, you need attorneys to protect your rights.
Whether drilling for oil or natural gas on Texas soil or out in the Gulf, few jobs more dangerous than working on a rig. The price of gasoline and all of its refined byproducts continue to skyrocket. And natural gas is a rising commodity in a world where all sources of energy are at a premium. This industry is working day-and-night to meet the even greater demand from our growing industrialized world to quench its thirst. Long dormant Texas oilfields and the massive new natural gas fields in the northern part of the state are a beehive of profitable activity.
This newfound frenzy of drilling (and transportation) activity is producing a dramatic uptick of serious drilling and pipeline accident injuries, too many of them are usually the result of someone’s negligence. Most can be traced to cutting production corners, use of equipment that should have been retired years ago, and drilling workers being pushed beyond their physical limits by being forced to work many hours of overtime and being double shifts for days on end. Now the money is good when they do that. But there’s a downside in this work environment. It is characterized by speed and corporate greed then-amplified by bad judgment. So many tragic and avoidable injuries are typical of an industry that is rushing to meet market demands at breakneck speed, with little regard for the people who generate those huge profits.
If you’ve suffered an injury in a drilling rig accident, or if a loved one has been killed in the oil or gas patch, what happens next? Who pays the medical bills, lost wages, pain, and suffering, or disability, regardless of whether it’s short-term or permanent? If a death is involved, who pays for the funeral and the surviving family’s loss? And since it would be suicide to fight those liable for your injuries by yourself, who has the experience and ability to fight for your rights? An experienced Texas drilling and pipeline accident attorney is your only option if you are to receive fair and just compensation for your damages arising from the accident you suffered on a drilling rig or pipeline.
A contractor died and three other workers were injured in an explosion Wednesday afternoon south of Caldwell in Burleson County. (KBTX photo)
Since workers’ compensation dominates Texas injury law, you must first know whether or not your employer has this insurance, which covers some reimbursement for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering. But you also need to know if third parties contributed to your injuries because they too can be a source of compensatory revenue. In-short, the ability to obtain fair compensation is predicated on the ability of your oil and gas injury lawyer to get to the bottom of the accident, its causes, and bring every party who is liable for your injury to justice.
Under the best circumstances, getting to the bottom of petroleum worker injury cases is rarely easy. Each case usually has a lot of “moving parts” and strategies unique to the injury, the defendants, how they are insured and the strategy each defendant uses against you. And don’t forget, the oil and gas industry has the world by the throat. So those companies have a lot of power, money and legal influence. They’ll stop at nothing to deny your claim and fight your civil lawsuit in order to protect their record profits. Without an experienced attorney to represent you, the injured oil and gas drilling and pipeline worker, are little more than an insignificant nuisance to these deep-pocket opponents.
Our lead attorney, and his professional team at our Texas Law Offices, have a track record of resolving injury claims and civil cases on behalf of injured oil and gas workers that dates back over 20 years. You can be confident that you will be retaining an experienced firm that can secure a maximum work-injury settlement for your drilling or pipeline accident case. Without experienced legal counsel, it’s virtually impossible to accomplish this goal.
