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This article depicts some of the hazards folks working on rigs might face daily. Glad to know there are safety folks attempting to keep the workers safer. This is something to think about for all the inexperienced folks wondering why the jobs aren't like picking apples off a tree lately. There is so much more to consider than just what a person makes an hour if you want to work the rigs. Be safe!! Might be prudent to check on the safety records of a company before signing on too.
Dickinson Press....Cyclone cited: OSHA finds oil driller violated various safety standards | The Dickinson Press | Dickinson, North Dakota
This article depicts some of the hazards folks working on rigs might face daily. Glad to know there are safety folks attempting to keep the workers safer. This is something to think about for all the inexperienced folks wondering why the jobs aren't like picking apples off a tree lately. There is so much more to consider than just what a person makes an hour if you want to work the rigs. Be safe!! Might be prudent to check on the safety records of a company before signing on too.
Dickinson Press....Cyclone cited: OSHA finds oil driller violated various safety standards | The Dickinson Press | Dickinson, North Dakota
Good article! What the "common folk" don't here about in the news is the near misses, cut off limbs, and other terrible incidents that happen on a daily basis. There are many many accidents that are not in the news. People falling off from the derrik getting knocked out or worse, never heard of them in the news or the guys that come to work totally ****ted faced and still somehow are allowed to work that day or night. I pray everyday for my bf, family, and friends and others that are working the oil fields, it's not a joke. Makes me cringe when someone says "it's not that bad" really really does.
Good article! What the "common folk" don't here about in the news is the near misses, cut off limbs, and other terrible incidents that happen on a daily basis. There are many many accidents that are not in the news. People falling off from the derrik getting knocked out or worse, never heard of them in the news or the guys that come to work totally ****ted faced and still somehow are allowed to work that day or night. I pray everyday for my bf, family, and friends and others that are working the oil fields, it's not a joke. Makes me cringe when someone says "it's not that bad" really really does.
I think the fine they could be facing is pretty lame - make it hurt a little bit more and maybe Cyclone will straighten up. I wonder how many fingers are lost on a daily basis - and a lost finger would probably be considered a 'minor' injury. There have been several reports on the local news about emergency rooms being almost overwhelmed with the number of trauma cases they face now, some from the traffic accidents and some from the oil field, either way, there is a price to pay for all the so called 'great jobs' that some people have.
and a lost finger would probably be considered a 'minor' injury.
It certainly is a minor injury. I got a friend a job and he lost the end of one of his fingers and he went on about it for years when the odds of it happening are pretty high and that is an accepted risk. I was amazed to see one of my fingers still attached after a fluke movement of a piece of equipment. Everything on a rig is made of steel and very few things are light weight so people get hurt fairly easily and it should be expected.
I used to get a blackened fingernail about every three weeks. A older and really hardened guy was holding a big punch and wanted me to hit it with a small sledgehammer and it was in such a tight spot that I doubted that I could hit the punch and not hit his finger. I spent a lot if time trying to talk him out of it and offered to hold the punch but to no avail. I wound up and nailed the end of his finger with the sledgehammer.
After a couple of minutes of him groaning in pain he finally smiled and said "just evened it up with the other ones" and he pulled off his other glove and two of his other thick fat fingers had black nails and his hands had obviously been beaten to a pulp over the years.
Long ago lots of companies were just happy to have any warm body on a rig and there wasn't much focus on safety at all other than H2S poisoning. Back then (and maybe still?) on poorly managed rigs the hands would have drinking contests before work. One derrick hand I worked with forgot to put his belt on a fell off the platform but luckily grabbed the pipe and slid down knocking the tongs out of our hands. The driller told him to have a coffee and a cigarette and get back to work.
On one road I worked on two people were killed one day. One guy went to sleep in the huge drive belts that run from the huge V-12 Caterpillar engines to the huge mud pumps and the other guy fell into the draw works. Both such stupid accidents that people almost didn't feel sorry for them.
One rig that I started on there was such a bad accident (not fatal) that almost the whole crew quit and I had to pressure wash the accident area.
Without getting into a lot of other nasty stories please let people know that working on the rigs will never be safe no matter what and that fingers can get knocked off very easily with a half second of distraction. If you know someone is not fast on their feet, not ready for a beating, or that would be devastated by an accident try and talk them out of working on the rigs.
No amount of training or fining companies will ever change this but there are also poorly run and maintained rigs that are needlessly dangerous.
I'm not seeing where this is any more dangerous than farming or ranching, personally.
Just saw a photo of one of my kids' classmate's mom. She'd been hit from behind by a cow on the fight and it smashed her into the gate. Her face is a mangled mess...
Well I grew up on a ranch/farm and I find that rig work has many more variables and with working as one does with a crew of various numbers along with many different personalities, the other contractors that come onto the rig site, I still think working around that situation is more of a risk. Accidents happen on each of course, but when your on a farm or ranch your working with limited coworkers and I feel safety is a family matter where your more apt to be looking out for each other, but yes animals deserve a whole another type of respect when your working with them.
I guess one could argue it's not any worse off than working as a construction worker and so forth, but I'm not trying to compare who's job is the worst. I just know there are a lot of safety issues and accidents that are not right in the media's reporting on a daily or weekly basis. I fear more for my bf's safety on rigs than I do my dad's working on his ranch as my dad works by himself for the majority of the time and not with hungover, high, sleepless, or careless crew members. Yes, they have drug testing, but that don't mean anything with some of the people that know how to get by that.
I just know there are a lot of safety issues and accidents that are not right in the media's reporting on a daily or weekly basis.
Of course not.
But again, that's just like any other dangerous industry. You don't hear about the ranch hand who tried to split his skull when the Handyman jack slipped, either. But I hauled him to the ER.
Or the farmer who died when he was buried in a grain bin last year. But my husband helped recover his co-worker's body...
Or our neighbor who came off his horse at a branding, shattered his pelvis and had to be Life Flighted 150 miles. Or the countless farmers who have lost limbs, hands, and even their lives, by being wrapped around a PTO, run through a baler, etc, etc.
This is just another one of those industries that is inherently dangerous, so people have to stay alert to risks. On the bright side, it pays FAR better than a lot of other high-risk occupations...
But the point of the thread is to inform those not aware of the dangers. Not a competition on whether roughneck work is as/more dangerous than other occupations. But, just the simple numbers, the amount of traffic on each site.......the traffic too and from is a hazard. A client in the office today that works for a major delivery company, similar to UPS....turned down the offer to manage the office in Minot. they cannot keep drivers, too hazardous, or they lose them to the guys driving and making per diem pay. And that is w/ a 30.00 hr wage offer, so the defining factors in some folks is whether the money is worth the risk, and many think it is not. In fact, the Grand Forks branch now has to do all the runs to the areas previously served by the Williston branch......cause Williston can't do them w/ all the deliveries in town there. Check the emergency room reports....accidents happening daily. Williston Herald N.D. Oil Patch:N.D. OIL PATCH: Health care industry feels strain of oil boom | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota
But the point of the thread is to inform those not aware of the dangers. Not a competition on whether roughneck work is as/more dangerous than other occupations. But, just the simple numbers, the amount of traffic on each site.......the traffic too and from is a hazard. A client in the office today that works for a major delivery company, similar to UPS....turned down the offer to manage the office in Minot. they cannot keep drivers, too hazardous, or they lose them to the guys driving and making per diem pay. And that is w/ a 30.00 hr wage offer, so the defining factors in some folks is whether the money is worth the risk, and many think it is not. In fact, the Grand Forks branch now has to do all the runs to the areas previously served by the Williston branch......cause Williston can't do them w/ all the deliveries in town there. Check the emergency room reports....accidents happening daily. Williston Herald N.D. Oil Patch:N.D. OIL PATCH: Health care industry feels strain of oil boom | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota
Ditto as well.
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