What to Do After an Oil Rig Accident?

Oil rigs present challenging work environments, and any individual working on these rigs who sustains an injury must act quickly for their health and well-being. Here, we want to review the steps that injury victims should take after sustaining an injury in an oil rig accident.

Step One: Check for Injuries

If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of experiencing an oil rig accident, the number one priority is checking yourself for injuries. Your health is the most important factor here, and you need to seek medical treatment. Even if you do not see any obvious injuries or feel pain right away, you need to go to a hospital for an evaluation. The signs and symptoms of some oil rig injuries may not appear until hours or even a day or so after the incident occurs.

Step Two: Get to a Safe Location

If you sustain an injury on an oil rig and you are in an unsafe location, you need to do what you can to get to a safe area as soon as possible. If necessary, the oil rig may need to be evacuated, but that call will be made by supervisors. If you are able to move and get to a safe location, do so. However, there is a caveat to this – if your injuries are so severe that any further movement could lead to a more severe injury, you will have to use your best judgment about whether or not to move to safety. If your immediate surroundings could cause imminent danger, moving may be the only route. However, if you can wait for assistance from medical personnel, you should do that.

Step Three: Report the Incident

Any type of injury on an oil rig must be reported through the proper chain of command. An immediate supervisor needs to know right away, and they can begin the accident report process. There are fairly strict requirements for reporting workplace injuries, and failure to do so right away could lead to problems when trying to get an injury claim approved.

Step Four: Gather Evidence

If it is possible to do so, you should make efforts to document the incident. This can include gathering evidence from the initial scene of the incident, including photographs taken using a cell phone or another type of camera. If there are any surveillance cameras in the area, make a note of them so your attorney can ask for the footage later.

If there were any eyewitnesses to the incident, including supervisors or coworkers, make sure to write their names down so they can give statements later on. Any clothing you were wearing when the injury occurred needs to be saved in a separate location, preferably a sealable plastic bag.

Step Five: Call an Oil Rig Accident Lawyer

We encourage you to reach out to a personal injury attorney who has experience handling oil rig accidents. These claims can be incredibly challenging, and attorneys often have to delve through both federal and state laws when working to recover compensation for clients after these incidents. Let your attorney conduct an investigation and handle all other parties involved in order to recover the compensation you are entitled to.