Offshore decks are full of pinch points — and guarding and procedure are supposed to keep workers out of them.
Drill pipe, tubulars, loads, and heavy iron move constantly across an offshore deck. A worker caught between them suffers some of the most severe injuries in the industry.
Who is liable for a crush injury offshore?
These are usually preventable failures, not unavoidable accidents. Liability can reach more than one party at once: the employer for negligence under the Jones Act, the vessel or platform owner for an unseaworthy or unsafe condition, and third parties such as equipment manufacturers or other contractors. What you can recover also depends on whether you were a seaman or a platform worker.
Key takeaways
- Liability for a crush injury can reach the employer, the vessel or platform owner, and third parties at once.
- A Jones Act seaman recovers from the employer for negligence and can claim unseaworthiness against the vessel.
- Equipment makers and other contractors can be pursued as third parties.
- These events are usually preventable failures, not unavoidable accidents.
- Preserving the equipment and scene early is often decisive.
Caught between moving steel.
Crush and caught-between injuries happen during tubular and pipe handling, between a load and a fixed structure, in the iron roughneck, tongs, and rotary on the drill floor, in doors and hatches, and between a vessel and a platform or dock as they move in the swell.
The causes are inadequate machine guarding, unsafe procedures, communication failures during lifts and pipe handling, and defective equipment. Where the steel moves, procedure is supposed to keep people out of the line of fire.
Among the most severe offshore injuries.
Caught-between forces cause amputation, crushed limbs and pelvis, degloving, comminuted and open fractures requiring open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), compartment syndrome, and internal organ injury. These are frequently life-altering, permanent injuries.
Who is liable.
Crush injuries trace to missing guarding, an unsafe procedure, a communication failure during a lift or pipe handling, or defective equipment.
Unguarded or defective equipment can make a vessel unseaworthy.
Unsafe pipe-handling or lifting procedures are Jones Act negligence for a seaman.
Pipe-handling equipment, tongs, or machinery that failed or lacked guarding can support a product claim.
A vessel or contractor whose operation caused the injury may be liable under § 905(b) or the general maritime law.
Between the load and the steel is exactly where procedure is supposed to keep you — and where it so often doesn't.
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Text (713) 489-2297We build these cases by reconstructing what happened.
Doyle Dennis Avery tries catastrophic offshore-injury cases to verdict — including the $7.86 million result in Gillies v. Valaris. The firm builds these cases by reconstructing exactly how the incident happened and identifying every responsible party: the employer, the vessel, the equipment manufacturer, and the contractors on site.
If you or a family member was hurt this way offshore, the early investigation — securing the equipment, the records, and the witnesses before they scatter — is often what determines the outcome.
What the other side will argue — and how it’s met.
Crush injuries are violent and well-documented, so the defense usually concedes the event and attacks fault, causation, and the size of the loss.
The Jones Act uses pure comparative negligence, so a worker’s own fault reduces a recovery but never bars it — and in practice the hazard is usually the company’s, not the worker’s. In one case the firm tried, a jury found the injured worker zero percent at fault.
Defective and poorly maintained equipment hides behind “operator error” constantly. The answer is the maintenance record, the prior complaints, and a marine-safety expert who can show the equipment never should have been in service.
Under the featherweight causation standard, an employer takes its worker as it finds him. Lighting up a silent or prior condition — a degenerated disc, a quiet nerve impingement — is a compensable injury, not a defense.
Insurers hire investigators to film injured workers for weeks — outside homes, at church, at a child’s school. In the firm’s experience that surveillance usually turns up nothing, while the treating physicians and the medical record carry the truth.
Crush cases turn on the lift plan and the line of fire.
A crush almost always means a load, a piece of equipment, or two surfaces came together where a person should never have been — a failure of the lift plan, the tag lines, the exclusion zone, or a hands-free rigging method. The firm reconstructs exactly how the body got into the line of fire and shows the safe method that was skipped, with a marine-safety expert establishing custom and practice. Notice matters too: what the crew and the shoreside managers knew about the defective hoist, the short sling, or the language barrier on deck. The damages reflect amputations, degloving, and crushed limbs — future surgeries, prosthetics, and lost earning capacity for life.
Almost every crush injury is a lift that should have been planned to keep a body out of the path of the load.
What to protect while it still exists.
The rigging, the gear, and the crew’s memory of the lift are what prove a crush case — and all three vanish fast.
Identify and photograph the hoist, sling, shackle, tag lines, and the object that crushed you. Equipment gets returned, re-rigged, or scrapped; secure it or document it now.
Tell a supervisor and make sure a written incident report is created. Federal law also requires the vessel to file a Coast Guard marine-casualty report (Form CG‑2692) for a serious injury; a missing report is itself evidence of a safety failure.
See a doctor promptly and describe exactly how the injury happened to every provider. Gaps and vague histories are the first thing the defense exploits; an honest, contemporaneous record is the backbone of the case.
You are not required to give the company’s insurer a recorded statement, and early “I’m okay” remarks get used against you. Assume you may be watched. Get advice before signing anything.
From our cases
Frequently asked questions about a crush injury offshore
Who can be held liable for a crush injury offshore?
Liability can fall on more than one party. A Jones Act seaman can recover from the employer for negligence and bring an unseaworthiness claim against the vessel owner; a platform worker may have claims under OCSLA and the Longshore Act; and in many cases a third party, such as an equipment manufacturer or another contractor, can be liable as well.
What causes a crush injury offshore?
Offshore decks are full of pinch points. Crush injuries trace to unguarded equipment, swinging or shifting loads, machinery that is not locked out during service, and procedures that put workers between heavy objects.
Do I have to prove someone was at fault?
Not entirely. Under the Jones Act you need only show the employer's negligence played some part, however slight, which is a very worker-friendly standard. An unseaworthiness claim requires no negligence at all, only that the vessel or its equipment was not reasonably fit. Maintenance and cure is owed to a seaman regardless of fault.
What can I recover after a crush injury offshore?
Recovery is measured in categories rather than a fixed amount: past and future medical care, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and maintenance and cure for a seaman. The total depends on the facts, so no honest lawyer can promise a number up front.
Can a third party, such as an equipment maker or contractor, be sued?
Yes. A seaman's claim against the employer runs through the Jones Act, but you can also pursue third parties who are not your employer, such as the maker of defective equipment or another contractor whose negligence contributed, through ordinary negligence or product-liability claims.
What should you do after a crush injury offshore?
Get medical care and make sure the incident is reported in writing. If it is safe to do so, preserve the equipment and scene, photograph everything, and get witness names. Do not give a recorded statement or sign anything before talking to a lawyer.
What happens when you text us
Tell us what happened — in your own words, as much or as little as you want.
We review it free. You learn whether maritime law protects you and what your options actually are.
You decide. Nothing is filed, and no one contacts your employer, unless you choose to move forward.
Your conversation with us is confidential. There is no fee unless we win. Hablamos español.
Reach out even if…
- You think the accident was partly your fault — under the Jones Act, your own fault reduces a recovery but does not bar it.
- You already gave a statement or signed something — a release signed under pressure can be challenged.
- You still work for the company — talking to a lawyer is confidential, and retaliation for pursuing a claim can itself be actionable.
- You’re not sure your case is “big enough” — that’s exactly what a free review is for.
Catastrophic offshore injury? The investigation can’t wait.
Equipment gets repaired, records get revised, and witnesses rotate off the rig. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP moves quickly to preserve the evidence and identify every responsible party. A case review costs nothing, there is no obligation, and your employer will not know you contacted us.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law that applies to an offshore injury — the Jones Act, the LHWCA and \u00a7 905(b), OCSLA, the general maritime law, product-liability law, or another body of law — and the parties responsible depend on the specific facts. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome. Doyle Dennis Avery LLP · Houston, Texas. This is attorney advertising.
