Father of Deepwater Horizon victim tells story before Congress

The father of a worker killed in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion gave his moving testimony to a House Judiciary committee Thursday.

Keith Jones was joined by survivors and company representatives while he expressed a mixture of heartfelt remembrances of youngest son Gordon and righteous anger at his child’s death. A picture was displayed at the televised hearing of Gordon holding his oldest son Stafford at birth and another of Maxwell, a baby boy born two weeks after his death. Keith Jones, a trial lawyer by trade, said it was necessary that the companies responsible for the tragedy be “exposed to pain in the only place they can feel it—their bank accounts," because existing law does not require companies to provide fair compensation for their workers.

Steven Stone, a Deepwater Horizon survivor, said he felt like a criminal after Transocean required him to take a drug test immediately after escaping with his life.

Ruining the human element of the hearing was the tone of the company officials, who again resorted to pointing the finger of blame and denial of responsibility. The Haliburton counsel blamed Transocean. Transocean cited liability on a limited basis and Cameron argued that it should not be held accountable despite its failed blowout preventers.

See the testimony here.