An Aggressive Advocate, When You Need It Most.

Oil and gas drilling workers face dangerous working conditions

Published on Jan 8, 2019 at 6:35 pm in Firm News, workers' compensation.

Certain occupations are more inherently dangerous than others. Pennsylvania’s coal mining industry was at one time the cause of many deaths and injuries, but today, the oil and gas drilling industry is regularly listed among the most dangerous. OSHA requires employers to control or mitigate identified hazards. Despite this, deaths and severe injuries in the oil and gas fields continue to increase.

Government studies have revealed the oil and gas drilling industry has a mortality rate five times that of all other industries in the U.S., combined. This translates to over 1,500 deaths in a nine-year period, approximately the same number of American troops who lost their lives in Afghanistan during the same time period. OSHA regularly cites oil and gas companies. Well over half of these 10,000-plus citations over the past decade have been for “serious” issues, meaning those likely to result in severe injury or death.

OSHA has general standards for safety and also industry-specific regulations. Back in the 1990s when George H.W. Bush, a former oilman, was in the White House, OSHA proposed an entire set of regulations for the oil and gas industry. Because of the pending industry-specific rules, oil and gas companies were exempted from certain regulations that apply to other businesses. While the proposal for oil/gas regulations was killed, the safety exemptions remain to this day.

The first remedy for a worker injured on the job is workers’ compensation. A violation of OSHA may or may not be a factor in a claim, but a workers’ compensation lawyer can assess a case and help ensure that the injured employee receives all that he or she is entitled to.

Request Attorney Consultation

Call us or fill out the form below to schedule a confidential case evaluation. We can help you determine if you need a lawyer, if you have a potential case, and if so, what your next step should be.

Legal & Firm News

Pennsylvania Car Seat Laws

For over 60 years, motor vehicle crashes were the single leading cause of death for children in the United States. Only in very recent years has firearm injuries overtaken the top place, with car crashes remaining in the leading first or second positions in the past few years of research. Following all Pennsylvania car seat […]

Read More

10 Safety Tips for Your Next Family Outing

Planning a day out for your family? At Stapp Law, LLC, we want everyone to be safe when exploring Williamsport, Lycoming County, or anywhere else in Pennsylvania. That’s why we’ve compiled our top 10 safety tips for your next family outing.

Read More

Who Bears Liability in a Slip and Fall Accident?

Most of us are so focused on completing our task at hand that we don’t take extra time to look for every potential hazard in our path. However, not doing so comes with some downsides, one of which includes the risk of slipping and falling and getting seriously hurt. You may be surprised to learn […]

Read More