Oilfield worker awarded $30M
A Colorado jury has awarded $30 million to an oilfield worker who was severely injured when a fracking tank exploded in Weld County four years ago, but he’ll be unable to collect the full amount because state law limits how much companies are required to pay in damages when they lose lawsuits.
Last week’s verdict in federal court comes as a group called Coloradans for Accountability, supported by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association, is organizing a ballot initiative to put before voters in November that would eliminate the cap on non-economic damages in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits.
Straughen, a married father of two and a U.S. Air Force veteran who lives in Idaho, was working at the time of the explosion as a well tester for a contractor who assigned him to a well pad in Greeley. He was working on a fracking tank in December 2019 when he and a co-worker heard a pop and noticed smoke leaking from another tank. Straughen asked his colleague to climb on top of one of the tanks to shut its vent valves.
But the tank Straughen was standing on exploded, catapulting him 27 feet through the air. The blast also sent his coworker flying off the other tank and onto the top of another.
The explosion and the subsequent fall caused a fractured pelvis, spine, ankle and hip, and a mild traumatic brain injury. Straughen spent months in a hospital and then a rehabilitation center. He ultimately had his right foot amputated because of ongoing pain.
After the explosion, an investigation determined the company that had delivered the fracking tanks — BHS Inc., a Wyoming-based company with offices in Vernal, Utah — placed faulty, damaged equipment on the Weld County site. The tank that exploded had holes in it so that it was not air-tight and was leaking dangerous vapors, said Kurt Zaner, a lawyer with the Zaner Harden firm in Denver who represented Straughen.
Straughen filed a federal personal injury lawsuit against BHS Inc. and, on Thursday, after a nineday trial in U.S. District Court in Denver, a jury delivered a $30 million verdict in favor of Straughen and his wife Ashley.