Vol. 72/No. 30      July 28, 2008

Four workers were killed. All worked for Deep South Crane and Rigging, a contractor that was preparing a maintenance overhaul at LyondellBasell, a massive 700-acre petrochemical facility and one of a continuous series of refineries and chemical plants that stretch from Houston to Texas City, some 50 miles to the southeast.

The four dead workers were Marion “Scooter” Odom III, John Henry, Daniel “DJ” Johnson, and Rocky Strength. Seven workers were injured. Four were taken to hospitals for treatment; three others received care at the refinery.

As the crane collapsed it knocked over a smaller crane. Television footage of the crane showed it appeared to break off at the base.

On July 20 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent in federal investigators and cordoned off the area, restricting access to the media. LyondellBasell and Deep South are also conducting their own investigations.

Greg Smith, vice president of the Houston-based American Society of Safety Engineers, told the Houston Chronicle that “Construction is an inherently dangerous business.” Suggesting that workers are to blame for accidents, Smith said, “Good safety depends on personal responsibility.”

B.J. Case, a worker at the nearby Pasadena Refining facility, had a different point of view. Case is a member of United Steelworkers Local 13-227, which includes the LyondellBasell refinery.

For the companies, “it’s cheaper for us to die and pay the fines,” said Case. “If they put as many hours into maintenance as they do for these studies and these investigations—all they really do is deflect the blame away from them to us anyway—there would be a lot less accidents and injuries.”

“Months and months of investigation, somebody gets fined—that’s it!” said Case, whose worked at the nearby refinery for 20 years and has seen the results of these “investigations” by OSHA.

“More of us will keep on dying until we do something about it, and it has to start with using our union safety committees to protect us. And it is truly us, against them,” said Case.

There were 26 crane-related deaths in Texas in 2005 and 2006, more than any other state. Texas has no inspectors of its own; it relies on OSHA inspectors only. The state does not require crane operators to have a license.

The crane collapse in Houston was the deadliest incident in the industry since a 2005 explosion at BP refinery in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 workers and injured 180 other people.

Steve Warshell contributed to this article.  
 
 
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