Shipbreaking covers a wide range of work, from stripping a vessel of its gear and equipment to cutting down and recycling the ship’s structure. The job demands skill and constant attention to fire risk. It also depends on the vessel owner who hands over a ship that is safe to cut.
In this case, basic safeguards that were meant to protect a worker failed, and he paid for that failure with his life. The vessel owner, who also ran the scrap metal recycling facility where the ship was docked, kept the ship in unsafe condition. They did not put the safeguards needed in place at the worksite, and an explosion went off while the worker was cutting aboard the vessel.
The Townsley Law Firm resolved this case for his family in a settlement of more than $1,750,000. No amount of money can bring back a loved one. A settlement can, however, hold a negligent vessel owner accountable and give those left behind financial security as they move forward.
A routine cutting job turned deadly in seconds
The ship was a former offshore supply vessel that the facility owner had bought for scrap. It had been towed to the facility’s dock and moored there, still floating on a navigable river, and it was never moved before the explosion. The worker was aboard that vessel using a cutting torch to break the ship down.
Torch cutting is one of the main ways to dismantle and recycle ocean vessels. The torch slices through thick steel hulls, bulkheads and structural frames. The work is dangerous because flammable liquids, gases or vapors left inside a vessel’s tanks, lines and compartments can ignite from the torch’s heat, sparks or open flame. Vessel owners can greatly reduce the risk of explosion by following strict safety practices. They should treat every tank and enclosed space as hazardous, clean and vent the vessel thoroughly, and test the atmosphere before any hot work begins. They should also use mechanical cutting methods where hot work is unsafe and maintain oxy-fuel equipment as the IMCA Safety Guidance on Oxy-Fuel Equipment recommends.
Here the vessel owner did not take proper precautions. Without warning, hydraulic fluid on the vessel ignited and exploded while he was working. The blast left him badly burned. Roughly 90 percent of his body was burned, and more than half of those burns were third-degree. Third-degree burns go through the full thickness of the skin, and burns this widespread overwhelm the body’s ability to protect and heal itself.
His medical team fought hard to save him. Physicians gave him aggressive IV fluid resuscitation, cleared his airway with suctioning, fed him through a tube and kept him under critical care around the clock. Despite those efforts, he died from his injuries three days after the explosion.
The worksite lacked basic warnings and safe zones
Nothing in this case pointed to carelessness by our client. He was performing his work in a safe and non-negligent manner. That fact shifts the focus to a harder question. When a worker follows safe practices and still suffers a fatal injury, the investigation turns to the conditions he was handed.
The vessel had no posted signage and no designated cold-work-only areas. Cold-work areas are places where torches and other spark-producing tools are off limits because fire hazards are present. Signs and marked zones tell a worker where cutting is safe and where it is not. Without them, a worker has no reliable way to tell which parts of a ship carry a hidden fire risk.
The danger in this case was not new or unusual. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) treats “hot work,” which includes welding, cutting, burning, and other heat-producing operations, as a major fire and explosion risk. According to OSHA, fires and explosions caused by hot work account for up to 25 percent of shipyard fatalities.
Hydraulic fluid deserves special caution. When hydraulic fluid escapes under high pressure, the fluid can spray out as a fine oil mist that ignites easily, and a confined mist can cause an explosion. For that reason, OSHA’s shipbreaking guidance recommends taking an inventory of hazardous materials, including hydraulic fluid, before scrapping begins so those materials can be removed to protect workers and prevent fire. OSHA also allows hot work only in areas free of fire hazards or where those hazards have been controlled through physical isolation, fire watches, or other positive means.
Vessel owners must hand over a reasonably safe ship
Federal maritime law lets an injured maritime worker sue a vessel owner for the vessel’s negligence. In this case, the family’s claims rested on the Jones Act, general maritime law and Section 905(b). The U.S. Supreme Court has identified specific duties that vessel owners owe these workers, and one of the most important is the “turnover duty.” Before turning a vessel over to a shipbreaking crew, repair crew or similar contractor, the owner must make sure the ship and its equipment are reasonably safe. The owner must also warn workers about hidden hazards they know about, or should know about, that an experienced worker would not spot.
The vessel owner in this case fell short of that standard. It failed to turn over a safe vessel and failed to use reasonable care to protect the worker, and that negligence caused his death.
