Oil Rig Workers Feared for Safety

By: Richard Clark Published: July 22, 2010

WASHINGTON (Politically Illustrated) – A survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon conducted weeks before the oil rig exploded showed on Thursday that many of them were concerned about safety practices.

Some workers even complained about equipment reliability, “which they believed was a result of drilling priorities taking precedence over planned maintenance,” according to the survey.

A second report listed 26 system components on the rig that were in “poor” condition; however, “nearly everyone” on the rig said the tracking system for health and safety issues was “counter productive” because many workers entered fake data.

“Run it, break it, fix it,” said a worker. “That’s how they work.”

A spokesperson for Transocean, Lou Colasuonno, noted that the Deepwater Horizon had seven years without a single incident or major environment event.

The report was conducted by a focus group who interviewed at least 40 Transocean workers.

The second report was produced by four investigators on behalf of Transocean.

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