Personal Injury Law

Personal Injury Attorneys Says Oil Rig Workers Told to Say They Saw Nothing

By Michael

Personal injury lawyers representing several oil rig workers who were aboard an off-shore drilling platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico said they were told to sign documents that denied they were hurt or that they witnessed the explosion.

Workers who were on the  Deepwater Horizon deep sea drilling platform when it exploded, killing 11 people and leading to one of the largest oil spills in history, filed personal injury lawsuits against companies involved with running the rig. Companies named as plaintiffs include BP and Transocean, according to the Associated Press.

Attorneys said those who survived the explosion floated for hours on life boats while the rig burned. Once they finally made it back to land company officials met them with documents to sign that claimed they had no ?first hand or personal knowledge? of the incident.

?These men are told they have to sign these statements or they can’t go home,? Attorney Tony Buzbee said. ?I think it’s pretty callous, but I’m not surprised by it.?

Buzbee is representing 10 Transocean workers.

A spokesman for Transocean, who owns the oil rig, declined to answer whether Transocean or other companies involved with operating the rig had brought in the statements, saying that it was inappropriate to comment on pending litigation, according to AP.

?Our focus has been on the crewmembers and their families, working with all parties in the response efforts and conducting a Transocean investigation into the incident,? said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for Transocean.

Workers who survived the explosion were left to float at sea for about 10 hours, and were then taken to a hotel Louisiana to be debriefed and to sign statements, according to Buzbee and court documents filed by other Transocean workers who have filed injury lawsuits against the company.

Although the statements usually do not wield any legal power in a court room and are a regular practice in the industry, they can be used to besmirch the credibility of workers who might offer testimony in court or file lawsuits, Buzbee said.

During a recent interview that aired on PBS show ?NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,? 23-year-old Christopher Choy described what happened after he escaped the rig.

?When I signed that I didn’t care what it was. I wanted to sign the papers to do whatever I had to do so me and my wife could leave to go home,? Choy said during the interview. ?I’d been up for 40 hours and was just going through hell.?

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on May 16, 2010 (boomark / email).