Lawyer Comments: In the second part of this story, offshore injury lawyer Guy D'Andrea discusses the legal rights of families of fatal offshore accident victims.
In July of 2019, federal authorities launched an investigation into the deaths of two offshore workers in an accident on Shell Oil's Auger Tension Leg Platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The platform is in the U.S. Gulf, about 214 miles southwest of New Orleans.
The accident happened on Sunday, June 30, 2019, at around 10 a.m. Crewmembers were testing the Auger's lifeboat recovery system when a malfunction happened, killing a Shell employee and a contractor for Danos Inc., an offshore service provider.
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) launched an investigation immediately following the accident. Shell also announced plans to conduct an internal investigation.
Guy D'Andrea is an offshore injury lawyer who represents injured offshore workers and the families of those killed in fatal offshore accidents. We've asked Brian to share some thoughts on the legal rights of these victims and families:
Offshore workers often suffer serious injuries on the job. Some of these offshore accidents are preventable happen due to negligence. In cases involving negligence, offshore workers and their families may have grounds for a lawsuit against the worker's employer.
For example, if an offshore worker was killed due to a faulty piece of equipment on board of a platform, the worker's family could have ground for a Death on the High Seas Act (DOSHA) claim if the accident happened more than 3 miles from the coast of a US territory.
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an offshore platform accident, you can learn more about your family's legal rights by discussing your case with one of our experienced offshore injury lawyers.
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