San Francisco-Oakland Injury Attorney Comments on Pipeline Safety

According to sfexaminer.com, a handful pipeline accidents across the country–similar in scale to the one in San Bruno last September that killed eight people–has raised safety concerns among federal investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accidents, all of which indicate possible widespread safety problems in the pipeline industry. The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board sees this problem as an opportunity to re-evaluate how safe the industry is, what needs to be done, and what challenges are for the future. Yet gas industry officials say that the accident in San Bruno is not indicative of safety in the industry as a whole.
Here at the Brod Law Firm, we feel that because there are pipelines that run through communities all over the country, both gas industry and federal officials have an obligation to look into the causes of each of the accidents and make sure the nation’s pipelines are safe. The pipeline accidents under investigation are:
• An oil spill from a pipeline owned by a Canadian company sent an estimated 820,000 to 1million gallons spewing into the Kalamazoo River near Marshal, Mich., in late July.
• A natural gas pipeline in the Texas Panhandle that exploded last June after it was hit by a bulldozer, killing 2 men.
• A pipeline leak in Romeoville, Ill., last September sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into an industrial park. The pipeline had to shut down, interrupting the flow of oil to Midwest refineries and spiking up regional gas prices.
• A natural gas pipeline that ruptured near Palm City, Fla., in May 2009, injuring three people.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation has raised questions about whether PG&E should have known it was putting public safety at risk. As a matter of fact, eight officials with Pacific Gas and Electric are scheduled to testify today. If you or a loved one suffered an injury or a loss due to someone else’s negligence, please contact our firm. We have over 10 years experience fighting-and winning-personal injury lawsuits.