An Iberville Parish jury has awarded four workers injured in the June 13, 2013 explosion of the Williams Olefins plant in Geismar a collective $16.1 million, saying plant owners and operators “were negligent with respect to the cause” of the incident, reports occupational safety and health magazine EHS Today.
The verdict came down Tuesday, and the case is the second of many. In the first case, four workers were awarded a total of $13.6 million in damages by an Iberville Parish jury on Sept. 26. Williams Olefins previously said it would appeal the first verdict.
In the second case, Saudi-based Sabic Petrochemicals, which owns a 1/6th stake in the facility, was added as a co-defendant and was assigned 16% of the liability. Other defendants included Williams Olefins and its parent company—which was assigned 83.6% of the fault—as well as plant official Parker Tucker and plant supervisor Larry Bayer, who each were assigned 0.2% of the fault.
In the first case, the jury determined that Williams Olefins parent company was 95% responsible for the explosion and Williams Olefins was 3% to blame. The jury also determined that Tucker and Bayer each were responsible for 1% of the blame.
The Chemical Safety Board in October released its final report into explosion, concluding that process safety management program deficiencies at the Williams Geismar facility during the 12 years leading to the incident allowed a type of heat exchanger called a “reboiler” to be unprotected from overpressure, and ultimately rupture, causing the explosion.
Two employees died and another 167 reported injuries as a result of the 2013 explosion, which started as a large fire. Additional trials involving other injured employees are scheduled for January 2017 and April 2017.
