Jury Selection Begins In First Trial From Deadly BP Plant Explosion In Texas
The deadly 2005 explosion at a BP PLC refinery in Texas City was described to potential jurors in the first civil trial stemming from the blast as a “hell on Earth” in which those killed had their bodies torn apart and survivors suffered debilitating injuries.More than 200 people gathered in a Galveston courtroom Thursday for jury selection and answered questions from attorneys representing plaintiffs in five lawsuits that will be tried together.
Their lawsuits, barring last-minute settlements, are to be the first to be tried in connection with the blast, which killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others.
BP spokesman Neil Chapman said the London-based oil company is working to settle all lawsuits filed as a result of the accident.
Currently, about 1,350 lawsuits have been settled, including those involving all 15 workers who were killed. The blast has cost the company at least $2 billion (€1.5 billion) in compensation payouts, repairs and lost profit.
Among the lawsuits is one filed by two boys whose father, Rene Cardona Sr., 26, fatally shot himself six weeks after the explosion.
“Our experts will show that his suicide was a direct result of the explosion,” said Robert Kwok, an attorney for the sons of Cardona, a contract worker who did electrical maintenance at the plant.
Kwok said Cardona, who worked at the refinery from November 2003 until the day of the blast, was traumatized by the explosion because he knew people who were killed or injured in the accident.
Cardona’s sons, 11-year-old Rene Cardona Jr. and 6-year-old Xavier Rodriguez, briefly appeared in front of the jury before they had to go to school.
The other four plaintiffs - contract workers who say they suffer from back problems, hearing loss and post traumatic stress disorder due to the blast - are:
- Nara and David Wilson, both 44. They worked for mechanical contracting company Altair Strickland.
- Scott Kilbert, 48, an instrumentation supervisor for construction company JE Merit.
- Rolando Bocardo, 41, an instrument fitter for JE Merit.
“Inside the plant, it was hell on Earth,” Brent Coon, who represents the four other plaintiffs, told the jury pool. “These workers were running for their lives. Most of the people out there were working folks like you and I and were not emotionally prepared for that type of catastrophe.”
Originally, seven lawsuits were set to go to trial but two of them were settled before jury selection began Thursday.
The trial, if it proceeds, is expected to last up to two months.
The Texas City explosion occurred when part of the plant’s isomerization unit, which boosts the level of octane in gasoline, overfilled with highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons. A geyser-like release of flammable liquid and vapor ignited as the unit started up. Alarms and gauges that should have warned of the overfilling equipment failed to work at the plant about 40 miles southeast of Houston.
Coon told the jury pool all the plaintiffs are claiming BP ignored safety measures and failed to install new equipment that could have prevented the blast.
“They didn’t do it because they didn’t want to spend the money,” Coon said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, one of several agencies that investigated the accident, found that BP fostered bad management at the plant. The CSB also said cost-cutting moves by BP were factors in the explosion.
An internal report by BP released in May said there were management failures from the isomerization unit all the way up to the refining and marketing segment of the company.
Coon asked potential jurors Thursday if any of them work for BP. Several said they did, including two men who responded they work in the safety department at the Texas City refinery. Their responses elicited laughter from people in the courtroom.
“No disrespect for you. I’m sure you do a fine job,” Coon told one of these two men. Many others in the jury pool said they have worked for the petrochemical industry or have family or friends who do.
Others in the jury pool also told Coon they could not award money for any mental anguish the plaintiffs might have suffered because people assume some risk working in the petrochemical industry.
Some in the jury pool also said they believed oil companies are trying to be safe and they could not award damages designed to punish BP for any misconduct it might have done because that is the job of government agencies that regulate the petrochemical industry.
Jury selection was expected to take at least two days.