What Makes Oil Field Jobs Dangerous?

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Working oil field jobs has always been dangerous. A range of hazards makes workers in this line of work considerably more prone to accident, injury, and death. If you or a loved one has suffered an injury or death as a result of an oilfield job through no fault of their own, it’s important you get compensation.

Below, you can learn a bit more about the dangers posed by oilfield jobs, and what to do if you have been injured while working on an oil field. Most likely, however, you will still need to talk to an attorney about your oil field accident and they can help you assess your particular case and your options for moving forward.

Why Are Oil Fields Dangerous?

According to American Public Media site Marketplace, the dangers of oilfield jobs are increasing: “New numbers out this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the overall rate of fatal work injuries last year was about three out of every 100,000 full-time workers. But for workers in the oil and gas industry, who work long hours with a lot of dangerous equipment, it was more than five times higher.”

So right there, you can see that working with heavy equipment is one of the dangers of oilfield work. Large vehicles and machinery, especially when operated by workers who are tired or trying to work quickly, can quickly become mechanisms of injury or death. If they are not routinely inspected or serviced, accidents become even more likely. Unfortunately, often the worker or employer being irresponsible is not the one injured in construction accidents.

Compounding this danger is the fact that many companies are often involved in the assembly or disassembly of equipment on the oilfield. If they don’t all follow the same instructions or regulations, steps may be missed and dangerous situations might arise.

Common Types of Oil Field Injuries

These factors, combined, put workers in danger of a few common types of accidents. Among the most common are driving accidents. Because workers are often fatigued and don’t wear seatbelts in heavy equipment, crashes can be severely dangerous or even fatal.

Other potential sources of injury include malfunctioning of equipment, which can trap or crush workers. Oil rigs may blow, which means the oil bursts through the restraints that keep it flowing at a regular, contained pace. When this happens, machinery can collapse, injuring or killing workers. Blowouts also create serious fire hazards, and workers have been trapped and burned in fires before.

There’s also the fact that workers are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals. For instance, reports News 4 San Antonio, a number of deaths in oilfield workers were later discovered to be related to manual gauging, which is the process of sampling oil or gas to determine its content. While these deaths often masquerade as heart disease, many of them displayed strong links between death and exposure to gases.

How Can You Get Compensated for an Oil Field Injury?

While in the wake of an accident it might seem like you have no options, that isn’t true at all. If you or your loved one was harmed working on an oil field, there’s a good chance you have a case for compensation. If at all possible, we will help you with your case and ensure you get the compensation you’re owed. In addition to speaking Spanish, we offer free consultations so we can assess your case.

Speak to a Qualified Oil Field Accident Attorney Today

If you have been injured working on an oil field, or your loved one has died in this line of work, you absolutely deserve the compensation that will allow you to move on with your life as quickly as possible.

We have extensive experience representing people in Texas with accident, injury, and death cases. Please get in touch for your free initial consultation by filling out the contact form on our website.