Accidents Happen? The Dance Begins

The legal definition of an accident is: an unforeseen event that occurs without anyone`s fault or negligence.

BP released its "Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation Report" September 8, 2010. The report emphasizes the complexity of the event. It assigns no blame, but suggests that many business entities were involved, muddying the water, so to speak.

The BP investigators identified eight problem areas, six technical and two faulty human decisions. (The BP "accident" report is available online.) If any one of the acknowledged failures could result in an explosion, it seems that the combined probability of an explosion was predictable. Of the many off-shore oil wells, few explode, except for the one two weeks ago, and the BP well.


It is in BP`s interest to spread the blame for what BP chooses to call an event without anyone`s fault or negligence. However, two problem areas were human failings. "Finding 3: The Transocean rig crew and BP well site leaders reached the incorrect view that the (pressure) test was successful and that well integrity had been established." Finding 4: The rig crew did not recognize the influx (of gas) and did not act to control the well until hydrocarbons had passed through the BOP and into the riser."

Blaming the victims is underway. Eleven men died and many more were injured. BP says the Transocean rig crew was at least part of the cause of the disaster that BP calls an accident. The courts will answer whether the disaster was an accident "without anyone`s fault or negligence." Stay tuned!

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