Today I learned an oil company prevented the rescue of contracted divers working on their pipe to save money. ( www.youtube.com )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_Petroleum_Holdings#Paria_Fuel_Trading_Company_diving_tragedy

Of course, there is no direct admittance of "we knew it would be cheaper to let them die."

Instead, they say "we had no legal obligation to rescue them." That's the answer for the people who were born yesterday.

Big oil truly is a disgusting thing.

KillingTimeItself ,

this is the instance where 1 person managed to escape and even offered to go rescue his friends?

Yeah, so this wasn't to save money, they just blatantly said "it wasn't safe, we can't do anything about it" They chose not to do anything about it, they didn't refuse.

john89 OP ,

You were born yesterday, sorry.

KillingTimeItself ,

yeah no i just checked, this is that incident. What do you mean by that?

This is literally what the company responded with.

FanciestPants ,

I worked on pipelines for part of my career in maintenance planning, not in construction. I've been trying to guess at how a rescue operation could have been attempted in this case. I'm not aware of any mechanism for cutting into the pipe at the depth the divers were stuck that wouldn't immediately result in flooding the pipe, or risk cutting through the divers. The only rescue option that I could guess at is divers going in from the end of the pipe, swimming down through the length of it, and somehow pulling the trapped divers out.

Maybe the owner/state should have let rescuers give it a try, but that rescue option sounds terrifying as hell.

john89 OP ,

Thanks. I actually don't know much about pipelines or diving.

I kind of assumed that it would be possible to cut into the pipe to free the divers. Since it's such a large pipe, I don't think cutting through the divers is a big concern. But, I'm not sure what depth this pipe is located at. While having a ton of water rush into you is not ideal, if it's not so deep that they are crushed by the pressure or can't resurface before running out of breath, then it seems like that would've been that appropriate solution.

It seems to me that the company thought it would be cheaper to flush the bodies out with water than to cut into the pipe and have to repair it later.

Dasus ,

Maybe the owner/state should have let rescuers give it a try

"Maybe"?

FanciestPants ,

I meant "maybe" in the context of it seeming like a significant gamble to attempt the rescue. It certainly doesn't always work out for the potential rescuers.
https://slate.com/technology/2013/05/rescuers-turning-into-victims-lessons-from-first-responders-on-saving-people.html

So my hedging with the word "maybe" is because I certainly don't have the expertise to know the risks with attempting the rescue, but then again "maybe" any potential rescuers shouldn't have asked for permission.

aniki ,

Quiet quitters are actually management.

TokenBoomer ,

That is an interesting dialectic. I would have never arrived at that. Clever.

nutsack ,

Every oil company is a belligerent psychopath and deserves to be seized by every wacko garbage government that they operate under

HiddenLychee ,

Yeah this company was owned by the government already

delirious_owl ,
@delirious_owl@discuss.online avatar

Well, time for a revolution then

BossDj ,

This happened in 2022.

A government investigation released its report at the end of January this year. The families of the victims, as well as the survivor, praised the report and the commission's recommendation of charges for Corporate Manslaughter They are begging the government to take action. This was the latest info I could find.

The report squarely blames Paria (and names one person in particular) for blocking rescue attempts by the diving company and ignoring expert divers to whom they had access.

The survivor, Chris, doesn't think any charges will happen, has a fear of diving now, and has nightmares of the voices in the pipe.

https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/survivor-not-hopeful/article_9d29c918-b741-11ee-8977-9fe9be008764.html

whereisk ,

'the Voices in the pipe' is horror in 5 words.

boyi ,

Quite amusing that they choose Paria as the name for the company. I wonder if it has special meaning in local language. Context: Pariah

Vendul ,

No one was charged for murder? Crazy.

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

There was a report, finished last November, that recommended they be charged with "corporate manslaughter", and in January OSHA sent them to court for these complaints.

Shameless ,

How are acts such as this not treated the same as though one person had decided to do this to 5 people? What's the point of a CEO or Director if not to step in at times like this and do the right thing? And if they don't, they face the consequences.

I understand its all legal BS that negates the responsibility, but it just doesn't seem logical regardless of how its framed.

Transporter_Room_3 ,
@Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website avatar

Well you see, when the people with all the money make the rules, they go out of their way to ensure they never see an inkling of the consequences of their behaviors.

It's not logical, as so many things in modern society aren't when you take a step back and think about the Why's of the way things are. But society at large is beaten down and starved enough to not question it.

"It's just the way things are"

But it's not the way things could be

Plopp ,

What we need is a system where the power of the guilty is used as a multiplier for their punishment, especially if they used that power in some way for their crime.

mjhelto ,

Great idea. I just wish the fixes weren't reliant on the same foxes "guarding" the hens. Also, I think they do this in a Scandinavian country with income-based fines. Would be nice, but just a pipe dream until we can do something about this stupid fucked up government!

Plopp ,

Yes Finland does it with traffic fines, and maybe other fines as well. That's sort of exactly what I meant, but with "power" being more broadly defined than just money. (for instance cops have tremendous power they could misuse but not much money)

Maybe, just maybe, we could get something like that going if we managed to focus more on the split between people top to bottom rather than left to right, or between ethnicities etc.

mjhelto ,

One can hope. Unfortunately, too many are caught up in wedge-issues to solidify against the parasite class and demand change. When those same rich fucks own all the communication means and information storage, they'd just shut down our ability to coordinate if we ever grouped up to take on that group and this shit world they've created.

Plopp ,

Exactly. Who cares about accumulation of wealth and power, increasing income gaps and overall disparity when there are brown and trans people, reeeee! Some sort of enlightened, broad and sustained effort is required, but people with long working ours and stress over bills don't have the time and energy to engage in all that. Tee-hee says the rich folks.

ReverendIrreverence ,
@ReverendIrreverence@lemmy.ml avatar

just a pipe dream

I see what you did there ;-)

sorghum ,
@sorghum@sh.itjust.works avatar

Not that it matters much for this outcome, but it's a state owned oil company. It is run by Trinidad and Tobago. So replace CEO and directors with president/prime minister and parliament.

OsrsNeedsF2P ,

Paria admitted they had no rescue plan, citing that they had 'no legal responsibility to rescue the men'. Further external attempts to save the men were reportedly blocked by Paria. In November 2023, the Commission of Enquiry found that "Paria's negligence could be characterised as gross negligence and consequently criminal". They recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions "consider charging Paria with what is commonly known as Corporate Manslaughter."

Looks like nothing came from this.. yet?

A GoPro camera was recovered from one of the deceased divers, Kazim Ali Jr. Audio recording from the camera shows that all five men were alive after being sucked into the oil pipe, and in the audio they are heard praying and comforting each other.

This is why all of the interclass hatred and debates are stupid at the end of the day. When that's you, are you really gonna care that you died beside a Tankie or a Confederate supporter? We're slowly getting worse, while the rich literally let us die to save a couple million pounds.

rikudou ,

When that's you, are you really gonna care that you died beside a Tankie or a Confederate supporter?

What the fuck is that question? No, I won't care when I'm dying, I will care every other time, though. And as surprising as it may be, I'm more often not dying than I am dying.

So I do and will care about an idiot who wants to steal the precious few little freedoms we actually have to support their red fash wet dream which will never actually work because it would be stupid little greedy fucks like them running things.

Dasus ,

So I do and will care about an idiot who wants to steal the precious few little freedoms we actually have to support their red fash wet dream which will never actually work because it would be stupid little greedy fucks like them running things.

I'm having trouble recognising which one you're describing.

Shiggles ,

Given that both of your examples are commonly authoritarian if not outright fascist in ideology, I’m not exactly sure they’re too interested in class solidarity?

Glad you can grandstand but “you and the inbred moron who voted for the people who enabled things to get this bad are both getting dicked, so you should accept their opinions as respectable” is not the slam dunk argument you think it is.

muse ,
@muse@fedia.io avatar

I mean, they're a tankie.

cave ,
@cave@lemmy.world avatar

lemmy.ml

I'm not surprised

SupraMario ,

All of these types are the ones who think they're going to be running the show. The end goal is just power to them, everyone likes to joke that people just think they're future millionaires, while these types just think they're future leaders getting to send their enemies to death camps.

Aatube , (edited )
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

Looks like nothing came from this.. yet?

OSHA sent them to court in January, which, well, is court, so it goes long I guess

gmtom ,
@gmtom@lemmy.world avatar

So at most they'll get a couple million in fines that the company had already budgeted for.

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

The report says that's because they could not find evidence to attribute the charge to any person, and figureheads cannot be imprisoned just for a crime of their company in the primitive laws of this very small island country in the Caribbean, since nothing like this has happened in that country before, apparently. The report is sort of "exploiting" the existing rule that corporations may be accused as perpetrators to accommodate for the punishment of this crime to actually be able to convict and punish; the charge of "corporate manslaughter" has never happened before either. c.f. https://hfpsc.org/corporate-homicide-manslaughter/

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