With recent oil rig explosions, the attention of the country is focused on these rigs and how safety is upheld on board. In the Gulf of Mexico, there are over 4,000 oil rigs, but only a quarter are manned. An oil rig, also known as an oil platform, is used to drill for oil located below a lake or under the ocean floor. The drill removes the oil or natural gas from below the surface; it is then temporarily stored on the platform before being transported to shore. These oil rigs may be fixed to the bottom of the ocean floor, it may float, or it may be attached to an island built for that purpose. Oil rigs were first used in the late 1800s. It was not first used on the sea, but on Grand Lake St. Mary's.
There are many different types of oil rigs and platforms, including:
These oil rigs are designed to not have to rely on the mainland, but are able to supply their own water, energy, and electricity. They can even process the oil and gas before sending it to shore. The person in charge is the offshore installation manager. They have a critical job because they are the final say when it comes to the rig's operation.
On the crew will also be:
All personnel must carefully complete their job as the safety of many people may be relying on them.
Negligence is a term used in personal injury law. It basically means that someone failed to act in a way that another reasonable person would have acted in the same situation. This differs from other cases in that the individual's actions were not deliberately attempting to cause injury, but only did so as the result of carelessness. No one is perfect and mistakes will happen. This, however, does not excuse blatant mistakes which should have been seen.
In order to prove negligence, the first factor which will have to be determined is that the victim was owed a duty of care. In oil rig explosions, the employer or other employees owe those on the rig a duty of care.
The second element is that they breached their duty. This can be determined by comparing their behavior to what another would have done in the same situation.
There also has to be a connection between the individual's actions and the victim's injury.
It is our job at Arnold & Itkin to show when negligence has occurred and protect the rights of victims of negligence. We have been able to secure our clients billions of dollars in compensation and understand how best to protect their rights. We can also fight for families who have lost a loved one as the result of an oil rig explosion. We know that monetary compensation will never make up for the loss of a loved one, but it is still important that the guilty party is held accountable for what they have done, especially in cases that occurred on oil rigs.
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Arnold & Itkin represented nearly a third of the crewmembers injured in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Because maritime law is so complex and so complicated, it is crucial that you work with an attorney who has an in-depth understanding of how it works and who has proven themselves in similar cases before.
