These companies won’t learn, will they
From the article:
"The lawsuit claims Plaintiff sustained bodily injuries, specifically “including constant headaches, pain to his neck, back, shoulder and other parts of his body. Plaintiff also suffers from emotional disturbance . . . "
I wonder if a hurricane has to be involved for someone to sue for this? The older I get it seems I suffer from these work related conditions several times a week & I want a million dollars too.
If I had a nickle for every ache and pain, I’d be comfortably wealthy.
This may take many years and probably result in no return.Did they (Prior to employment) unknowingly sign a waiver form regarding decisions by shoreside or the captain pertaining to weather? A rotten decisision by the owners to not get that crew out of harms way, but legal shit may be an impediment to this fellows lawsuit. THAT SUCKS that they did not move that vessel with a very credible forecast. Agree catherder, would like a nickle or dime every time the bulkhead kissed me in bad weather.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss these claims.
Noble obviously needs to be taught an expensive lesson.
At my age, if you you wake up one morning and there are no aches or pains, you are probably dead. 
With or without the same stale joke the same argument applies here as to the value of the Conception fire lawsuit: Coast Guard Sued over Conception Fire.
Regardless if Nobel is forced to payout or not the publicity from lawsuit will put more pressure on the BSEE and on the industry in general. If that leads to any improvements or not remains to be seen.
In the dive boat Conception tragedy they had actual severe casualties, injury & death. A ship in a hurricane or bad weather with only a headache, sore muscles & stress is a near miss with an argument over following a company’s Safety Management System. Every Safety Management System I ever seen went into great detail about Stop Work Authority. Anyone who stayed on that ship was to blame as much as the master & company unless they used SWA, demanded to stop work & go home but was refused IMO.
My point is regardless of the merits or the chances of success of the lawsuits both cases have in common the fact that they may increase political / public pressure on the regulators.
Is the operative point.
Only tombstones or shame ever lead a government agency to act in the interest of the public instead of those they are entrusted to regulate.
Okay, I can agree with that. But I don’t think the public cares as much for seasick oil field workers as they do for families burned to death on friendly adventure birthday excursions. If the pro-environment, anti-drilling crowd can throw their weight behind the seasick sailors it might get some traction. No one really cared about the health of a few hundred people who decided to live next to coke/coal elevators until the no-coal crowd made their environmental crusade into a public health crusade. But those who like US energy independence & US workers employed in the oil maritime fields should be conscious of who they are cheering for in this debate.
I agree that the general public is not much aware of or cares about the risks apparently being taken by the O&G industry in the GOM.
There also seems to be far less concern about large oil spills in the GOM as compared to places like Alaska but while there may not be much blowback on this incident it might make people think about future incidents given the apparent lack of understanding wrt the power of tropical cyclones.
Ran from hurricanes for a bit of my career. We were slow, 10 knots or much less… Only ones that gave a shit was my wife to be safe, and the seat jockeys in dispatch wondering why I was late. I made it home or to the dock safe, as did my crew. Consider myself lucky compared to other outcomes fellow mariners with similar equipment encountered. Hurricane forecasting is much better in the last decade or so. Still. unpredictable to a point. Noble/Shell has no legitimate excuse to have left that vessel in harms way. . The master has a hand in the safety of the vessel as well. He could have got the frig out of the path much sooner with as much notice he had. Half or more the country could see that developing days before.
Why were the other Noble rigs able to get away from the storm without issue? Weren’t the other two also on Shell contracts?
“One call that’s all”
The reason there is less concern is because hydrocarbons “oil” dissipates way faster in warmer climates. But i’m sure you already know that. The earths natural seeps are here to stay.
I don’t think it has as much to do with technical details but more to do with intangibles like Existence Value however the reason for the difference in the public’s perceptions (assuming it exists) is not actual relevant to the discussion.
This is from the linked Wikipedia article on Existence Value:
They were used in a legal assessment of damages following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
I think Existence Value is a relative term. Should currents carry the nastiness from the Gulf of Mexico to the shore of the Hamptons I imagine Existence Value would change. The GOM has been a sewer for the midwest and the oil business for many year. Not likely to change. Years ago I remember a supply boat getting oil based mud from shore and the pipe burst spewing who knows how much into the water in Fourchon. I was concerned but someone quickly told me it wasn’t big deal, the state of Louisiana didn’t care and the USCG had no jurisdiction.