The Houston workplace injury lawyers at Denena & Points remark that the domestic drilling industry has grown enormously over the last decade, bringing welcome, high paying jobs to economically depressed areas during a time of great economic distress. But the economic boom has its price. Worker fatality rates within the industry have soared to 7 times the national average for other industries. And almost 33% of those worker fatalities relate to highway crashes, many caused by severely fatigued industry drivers who have attempted long drives after shifts lasting 20 hours or more. Industry workers aren’t the only ones at risk from these fatigued drivers. Anyone who shares the roads and highways with them stands at risk.
The oil and gas industry benefits from many long-standing exemptions that create different rules than the rest of us must follow. For instance, our Houston workplace injury lawyers note that the oil and gas companies aren’t required to inform OSHA when they commence drilling at a site or when their truckers crash on public roads. And how can the agency conduct timely site inspections if it doesn’t even know drilling has begun there? How can it investigate and deter safety shortcomings if it doesn’t investigate industry highway crashes?
Mining companies on the other hand must alert the federal Mine Safety & Health Administration about new sites where it commences work. This difference in industry regulatory requirements tracks a startling difference in fatality statistics as well. Even though there are fewer active U.S. oil & gas drilling sites than mining sites, more drilling industry workers than miners die each year, about a third of them in road crashes.
Not only are a high proportion of oil & gas field trucks in severe disrepair, but also the companies operate under safety exemptions that don’t affect other industries. Recent years have seen federal and state officials tighten up rules governing how many hours truckers may drive in a given period and how many rest breaks they must take. Our Houston workplace injury lawyers emphasize that the oil & gas industry truckers are exempt from these safety requirements. And oil service companies often work to avoid even those rules that do affect them. Some companies operate under registrations belonging to associated companies or shell companies to continue operating after regulators have taken their licenses for repeated safety violations.
Two months ago, the U.S. GAO (Government Accountability Office) chastised federal highway safety regulators for failure to detect “chameleon carriers,” commercial truckers that use shell companies to dodge safety rules. But the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) stands fast in its defense of oil & gas industry exceptions. It strives to reassure with the statement that the exemptions don’t apply to all of the industries’ trucks, and that the exemptions have been in place 50 years and are clear enough. Our Houston workplace injury lawyers ask, “Clear enough for what?” Are you reassured regarding your safety in the presence of these trucks?
Continue to Part 2.