Soaring Oil-Field Fatalities In Oklahoma Alarm Safety Officials

I’m not the only one alarmed over the surge in work-related deaths in the booming oil industry. Officials have taken note of the problem in Oklahoma.

Nine people have died, and three were hospitalized for burns, in oil-field related incidents in Oklahoma since October, which is when the federal fiscal year started, according to the website StateImpact.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2012/06/21/significant-rise-in-work-related-deaths-alarms-oklahoma-oil-and-gas-industry/

“This is a significant rise in the number of deaths in this industry in our state as compared to the last few years,” Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Mid-Continent Exploration & Production Safety Network said in a statement.

Officials met last week in Oklahoma City to discuss the rise in fatalities.

According to OSHA data cited by StateImpact, many of the oil workers who died “had less than five experience at the companies, and must were  either crushed or struck by onsite equipment.”

Wrote StateImpact, “The majority of the accidents involved transportation or ‘tripping,’ an oil-field operation that describes feeding pipeline segments into a well.”