Reports are flooding the news about the Transocean oil rig explosion that took place off the coast of Louisiana. The Deepwater Horizon is actually a vessel and is specifically called a semi-submersible drill ship. There were 126 people working aboard the Transocean rig when it exploded around 2200HRS c.s.t. [10:00 pm c.s.t.] on April 20th. There are 11 workers missing and at least 17 seriously injured. All of the injured persons are covered by the Jones Act which is a highly specialized area of the law. It would be foolish to hire a lawyer that is not an experienced maritime lawyer or maritime law firm.
The rig was set ablaze by the explosion, which lasted over two days. The accident that occurred on the Deepwater Horizon rig owned by Transocean was not immediately known. Immediately after the explosion, a call was made to the Coast Guard who then set out to rescue people and control the fire blaze on the rig to try to keep it from sinking. Water vessels and aircrafts attempted to search for the missing workers even after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon on April 23rd. None of the 11 missing workers were found.
The oil rig was located about 52 miles off the shore of Venice, Louisiana. Some of the officials reported that the oil rig workers didn’t have time to escape the Transocean oil rig explosion because it happened so quickly. But, it will be shown by Gordon, Elias & Seely, L.L.P. in their current lawsuit that it was, in fact, a failure to adequately and properly train its employees that increased the injuries and fatalities. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the Transocean oil rig accident. When the explosion took place, the crew had allegedly drilled down to +/- 18,000 feet. Transocean’s legal posturing, thus far, is that there was an uncontrolled release of oil or gas into the drilling pipeline, which then caused it to quickly pressurize, ejecting the equipment forcefully back to the surface. It will be seen as time goes on if Transocean tries t file a limitations action in federal court trying to limit its exposure and not fairly and adequately compensate the injured persons and affected family members.
The Transocean rig explosion injured numerous workers who were airlifted by helicopters and the others were loaded onto boats and transported to shore. Some of the injuries that were sustained included broken bones, back injuries, neck injuries, severe burns, smoke inhalation, PTSD, hearing loss and, some paid the ultimate sacrifice at the hands of these “profit driven” as opposed to “safety driven” oil companies.
There are numerous families and workers that have suffered from this tragic event and others similar to it. Luckily, there are Transocean rig explosion attorneys that can help. If you need legal assistance with this case or a similar one, contact Gordon, Elias & Seely, L.L.P. f/k/a/ Gordon & Elias at 1-800-773-6770. We are honored to say, that because of our prior experience successfully suing Transocean in wrongful death matters, our firm was hired before all other maritime law firms to prosecute a lawsuit against Transocean, British Petroleum and others.