Saturday, July 24, 2010

Somebody's up for some serious jail time

A whistle blower testified that over his repeated objections and complaints that the fire alarm system was silenced aboard the Deep Water Horizon rig. Included in rebuff was the captain of the rig. Wouldn't want to wake the other mucky mucks while everybody's burning to death now would we?

I wanted to cut and past the actual coast guard rules covering the operation of fire alarm systems aboard sea vessels but as usual the print came out so tiny you can't read it. In short all fire alarm systems are not to be silenced when in the normal operating mode.
I'm not that up on my fire codes but I have studied our local ordinances so I know that if you park in a fire lane it's a $30 fine. If you're parked there and the fire department shows up it goes to $300. Nothing in the law if somebody dies because you were too lazy to park it but I'm sure with the rig this is being investigated. Can you say negligent homicide?

8 comments:

Tim said...

Dude, did you hear their excuse for not having it active? They were afraid it might go off at night and wake the crew.. I'm not shitting you.
Well I know of eleven crew members they won't wake.

BBC said...

It was a fine day here, tomorrow I'm going to Hobuck Beach and stick my feet in some warm sand.

Demeur said...

Tim I think I mentioned that in the post.

Billy you just go ahead and wiggle your toes in the sand but you better hurry up before the oil companies have it covered with oil.

S.W. Anderson said...

I think that testimony ought to be made into a video clip, along with the initial report of how 11 people died on that rig. Then, whenever conservative free market fanatics in Congress start bleating and bellowing their laissez-faire, no oversight, no regulation gospel, whip out the video, dim the lights and play it a few times. Because it shows how a whole lot of businesses do things when nobody's looking.

Imagine, if a federal inspector had visited that rig, found the alarm disabled and proceeded to fine BP or Trans Ocean $500,000. Half a million for the first offense, $1 million for a second offense. Third offense, the rig is shut down and the operator is banned from working in U.S. territory indefinitely. A couple of big corporations get busted and pretty soon word gets around that safety pays.

BTW, I saw a headline somewhere yesterday that a coal mine was also recently found with its alarm system shut off. (And please, everybody, try not to step on the dead canaries.)

jmsjoin said...

Supposedly they were shut off so as not to disturb the higher mucky mucks. Most likely it came from the top on the rig but no one of consequence will be found guilty of the myriad of discretion.

BBC said...

Yeah, if they discover oil under us we may be fucked.

madmike said...

I just don't understand any of this and I am not sure I ever will. So many conflicting stories from so many conflicting sources make it hard to pick the pepper from the salt.

Tom Harper said...

There definitely needs to be some serious jail time, crippling fines and a company (Transocean) being forced out of business.

I know, dream on.