A lawyer representing people hurt in the deadly 2005 blast at BP's Texas City refinery today compared responsible refinery operations to responsible gun ownership.
During the second day of jury selection for a Galveston civil trial, Beaumont lawyer Brent Coon displayed a photograph of a pile of guns to more than 200 members of a jury pool, asking if they believed guns were inherently dangerous. Several raised their hands to indicate they did not.
"You won't have an accident if you know how to use it right," a woman in the pool said.
Coon represents four of six plaintiffs whose cases are being tried together in a Galveston state district court. Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday, but may be delayed by the prolonged jury questioning.
The gun analogy came after Coon asked if anyone thought explosions are inevitable at refineries. No one raised a hand.
"We believe you can run a refinery safely, and you can run it without explosions," Coon said.
Coon raised the ire of BP lawyers when he sought to illustrate what he called "frivolous defenses" by displaying a photo of Enron's tilted-E logo. BP attorney James Galbraith objected that the tactic equated to guilt by association, and said, "I don't appreciate it."
"We're not trying to say BP is Enron,"Coon said when the image was removed.
BP's lawyers began questioning jurors later today.
BP, which has set aside $1.6 billion to resolve blast-related litigation, has settled at least 1,350 of 3,000 lawsuits, including all stemming from the deaths caused by the explosion. With most, financial terms have not been disclosed. Cases that remain pending largely involve blast-related injuries and property damage.Barring last-minute settlements, the lawsuits now before state District Judge Susan Criss would be the first to go trial since the blast.
The plaintiffs are: the 11- and 6-year-old sons of Rene Cardona Sr., 26, of Baytown, who fatally shot himself in the head six weeks after 15 of his co-workers died in the blast; Scott Kilbert, 48, of Bellville; Nara and David Wilson, both 44, of Santa Fe; and Rolando Bocardo, 41, of Baytown. Coon said Kilbert, the Wilsons and Bocardo all suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss, and some have herniated discs.
The disaster occurred when a refining unit started up and ignited excess flammable liquid and vapors in equipment nearby. Alarms and gauges failed to warn of the excesses.
The 15 workers who died were in a trailer 121 feet away from the blast, which was felt as far as five miles away. In earlier questioning, about half of the prospective jurors raised their hands when Coon asked if they saw the black, billowing smoke or felt the tremors from the explosion on March 23, 2005.
Several investigations of the blast examined BP's safety practices as well as funding and training levels. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board concluded that budget cuts imposed in the years before the explosion paved the way to the tragedy. The board released its final report days before the two-year anniversary of the blast this year.
BP, which acquired the Texas City plant with its acquisition of Amoco in 1998, has acknowledged cutting costs and staff in the late 1990s and early this decade to offset losses from low oil prices and refining margins. But the company has steadfastly maintained it found no link between those cuts and the 2005 blast.
The Justice Department has been investigating events surrounding and leading to the blast for more than a year, but no indictments or settlements have emerged. BP acknowledged that probe in March last year.
A panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III found in a report issued in January that the company gained false confidence about process safety, or proper equipment operations and handling of hazardous materials, because BP had focused more on personal safety, such as prevention of slips and falls. But the panel said it found no evidence that BP intentionally ignored operational safety.
BP is implementing the panel's safety recommendations, including the April appointment of an independent monitor to oversee improvements. The company is spending $1.2 billion on its five U.S. refineries for five years, starting this year.
Via: Chron
by Kristen Hays
Found this post useful? Consider subscribing to
