Never Again…Until Next Time

How often does tragedy strike and we vow never to let it happen again? This is the 94th anniversary of the horrendous Triangle Shirt Waist factory fire, in which 146 workers died because of blocked exits. (We blogged the event and a recent book about it back in February). Although the fire eventually led to reforms in workplace safety, the immediate result was the acquittal of the owners in a criminal negligence trial, due in large part to a brilliant lawyer named Max Stueur. It’s a good thing that slick lawyers don’t have that kind of influence anymore, isn’t it?

The coverage of last week’s B.P. oil refinery fire in Texas City has been relatively mute. After all, only 15 people died and most of them were contract workers. It will be interesting to see if their families collect any workers compensation death benefits. The real problem, wouldn’t you know, is that it might lead to higher prices at the pump.

Through his website Confined Space, Jordan Barab keeps reminding us that workplace safety is by no means a done deal. He points out that BP is a national leader in accidents: BP’s U.S. facilities have had more than 3,565 accidents since 1990, ranking first in the nation. With last week’s 15 fatalities, they might be #1 in deaths as well. Is a “We’re #1!” PR campaign in the works?

News reports have pointed to an aging infrastructure in our oil refineries and to increased reliance on poorly trained contract workers. But after last week’s wake up call, I am sure that the management of our oil companies (whose stocks go up with the price of gasoline) will take aggressive steps to make sure it never happens again. And it won’t… until the next time.