Numbers don’t lie: Gulf offshore safety record is deplorable

Perhaps the silver lining in the Deepwater Horizon disaster is that it made the general public aware of the high risks that offshore workers face every day on the job. A Washington Post article this week reported the following facts:

-The worker fatality rate in the oil industry is seven times higher than the norm between 2003 and 2006.
-There were 1,298 accidents and 30 deaths on Gulf platforms between 2006 and 2009.
-Shifts are sometimes 12 hours on and off, 18 hours on/off and even 24 hours straight.

Even with these facts, federal inspectors’ warnings of workers’ minimal training have gone largely unheeded, the article says.

Just as the Titanic sinking in 1912 led to badly needed vessel safety reforms including mandating sufficient numbers of lifeboats, hopefully the 11 workers who died on the DH on April 20, 2010 will lead to badly needed offshore reforms.