Marion Odom III, Daniel Johnson, John Henry and Rocky Dale Strength killed in Houston crane accident on July 18, 2008
UPDATE!!!
The names of the victims of the Houston crane accident that occurred on July 18, 2008 have been released. Daniel "DJ" Johnson of Dayton, Marion "Sccoter" Odom III of Highlands, John Henry of Dayton, and Rocky Dale Strength of Sante Fe, TX. all perished in the Houston crane accident.
The initial estimate of six injured workers has since been revised and it appears that there were actually seven injured workers, one of whom has filed suit against LyondellBasel. All but one of the injured victims in the Houston crane accident has been released from the hospital.
It has not yet been determined whether or not Daniel Johnson, Marion Odom, John Henry, or Rocky Dale Strength have children or if these men are married. Under Texas law if these mean are in fact married then their wives, children, and potentially other family members would have a wrongful death claim against one or more parties involved.
The first step in the process would be for the family of the victim to hire an attorney. The word "hire" needs some clarification. While many attorneys work on an hourly pay rate, our law firm chooses a different type of arrangement that is more fair to our clients. Effectively, we represent the victims of contruction and crane accidents with out any out of pocket expenses to the client.
When our firm represents the victim of a construction or crane accident we begin by conducting a thorough investigation. Many will choose to rely on OSHA's findings in their mandatory investigation, but Grossman Law Offices chooses to conduct our own investigations using experts of our choosing in order to collect and preserve the right kind of evidence. From there a suit or other legal action will commence.
We wish the best for the victims of this accident and for the families of the deceased and should any of the involved parties like to have any unanswered questions, we are here to help.
Houston crane accident story as it was originally posted on July 18, 2008:
On July 18, 2008 a crane, described by many as the largest crane in the United States, collapsed on a work site killing four and injuring six. The accident occurred at approximately 2:00 PM at the LyondellBasel refinery on the southeast side of Houston, TX. Four contract workers were killed in the collapse but the specifics of their deaths have not yet been released.
The crane was operated by Deep South Crane & Rigging. The crane was reportedly not scheduled to be used for work today but at the time of the accident witnesses have confirmed that its engine was idling.
Of the six injured workers three were treated on site and released while two others were transported by helicopter to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and a third was taken by ambulance.
A note from Texas Construction Accident Attorney E. Michael Grossman:
There has been an alarming number of crane accidents in recent history. Browse this blog, for example, and will find numerous examples of crane accidents just in the past several months.
In my 20 years of experience I have represented thousands of victims who have suffered from injury and death and the recurring theme in all of the work related cases that my firm has handled is that in almost every single case the workers safety was compromised due to specific oversight or lapse of policy.
Most of the work related accidents that I have seen have been caused by or directly contributed to by those in authority not living up to their obligation to provide their employees with a reasonably safe work environment.
I think the reason that so many families have hired my firm to represent them in construction and crane accidents is simply because my firm makes answering the family member's questions our top priority. Most family members in these types of accidents simply want to know why this happened and what can be done to protect others.
I think that it is worth pointing out that although I am shocked by the large scale tragedy of this accident I am not surprised that it happened. Texas is one of 35 states that do not require crane operators to be licensed. In Dallas alone there are approximately 20-25 cranes working in downtown 8 of which have unlicensed operators controlling them.
In 2005 and 2006 Texas was the nation's leader in crane accident fatalities. OSHA, who will investigate this case, is in my opinion an organization that has limited impact on these types of accidents. OSHA operates under an entirely outdated set of guidelines. None other than the former acting director of OSHA, Charles Jeffress has stated "...The current law is inadequate to deal with serious violators, repetitive violators, situations where people are put at risk day after day." in regard to OSHA's ability to punish companies who operate under even the most blatant violation of safety protocol.
One such example would be the fact that OSHA requires crane operators to conduct yearly inspections of their cranes however there is no system in place to verify that such inspections are performed.
Additionally, the largest single fine that OSHA can impose on a company for contributing to or causing the death of a worker is only a few thousand dollars.
My reasoning in sharing all of this information is simply because, as I have stated in the past, I feel that these types of accidents are almost inevitable under the current operating procedures and until something drastically changes the only way to hold the guilty parties responsible is through legal efforts in civil court.
My law firm is very selective about the cases that we take yet I take most crane accident cases since I feel very passionately that my work helps to make an impact.
I feel horrible for the families of these men who died and I offer my condolences. I will keep them in my prayers.
Posted by: Texas Crane Accident Attorney E. Michael Grossman | Posted on: 7/18/2008
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Visitor Comments
Jennifer said:
What is the deal with all of these crane accidents that keep hapening? I think everyone should be very mad about this.
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annonymous said:
Somebody needs to do something about this sooner rather than later. I have been in the construction business for 25 years and I have seen some bad accidents come up from time to time but this is outrageous. It seems like there have been people dying left and right from crane accidents. There's one thing that I know from working in construction for so long and that's that construction guys will make mistakes and get hurt every so often. It happens to all of us, but every single time I have ever heard of a construction worker actually dying it was because somebody high up did something wrong. If it wasn't for the unions and lawyers making them companys scared you would see a bunch more peopel dying on construction sites and I think any other workman would tell you the same thig. I cant count how many times I saw a the foreman and management try to screw employees out of workers comp for a something as small as a broken hand.
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