Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

During demolition of the historic Flagship Hotel in Galveston yesterday a worker was pinned under debris when part of the hotel collapsed on him. Sadly that worker whose name has not yet been released has since died due to his injuries. The collapse happened at the north end of the hotel structure at around 3:40PM yesterday, Tuesday April 26, 2011. Around 75 percent of the second floor area that was being worked on fell to the first floor area below. Firefighters using the jaws of life had to rescue the worker who was pinned beneath 1,000 lbs of concrete and rebar material. It took emergency workers about 20 minutes to rescue the man.  The historic hotel was damage during Hurricane Ike and has been out of commission since then.  Demolition has been halted to allow an investigation into the death.

If you have lost a family member due to the negligence of another, contact the wrongful death attorneys at Smith & Hassler. In the more than 20-years Smith & Hassler has existed in the Houston area, the Smith & Hassler firm has handled many wrongful death cases from 18-wheeler accidents to food poisoning incidents and we understand the special attention wrongful death cases require. You can arrange a free consultation with a Smith & Hassler Houston personal injury attorney for your wrongful death claim, either in-person or by phone.

Local news outlets are reporting a cement truck accident at a southeast Houston construction site near the Houston medical center that killed a construction worker. A construction crew was doing shoring work along Brays Bayou on North MacGregor Way at Highway 288. The accident happened shortly after 3:00PM: a construction worker was crushed by the cement truck. Two others were taken to Ben Taub Hospital to be treated for their injuries. A heavy duty wrecker was called to lift the cement truck off the workers’ body. Click2Houston.com’s video report of the cement truck accident is here.

A cement truck killed a construction worker in an accident along the Bayou

If you or a family member have been injured at work, such as in a construction site accident, call Houston-based personal injury attorneys Smith & Hassler for a free consultation regarding your legal rights. Smith & Hassler has represented hard-working Texans injured on the job for more than 20-years.

A number of local news outlets are reporting that a worker was rescued by emergency services after he fell 20 feet into a hole at Fluid Power Equipment in Northwest Harris County in the 3600 block of Cunningham. A paramedic was lowered into the hole for the rescue, and Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department was able to hoist the paramedic and the man to safety. In the fall the man had become entangled in a ladder. A splint was put on the man’s shoulder and arm, and reportedly he was conscious the whole time. Click2Houston.com’s report of the accident states that the man sustained multiple fractures in the fall, and that the hole he fell into was a maintenance shaft. Apparently Fluid-Power Equipment, Inc. has not issued any comment on the incident.

A worker suffered multiple fractures after falling 20 feet at Fluid-Power Equipment in Houston

Smith & Hassler has represented hundreds of workers injured in on-the-job accidents over our 20+ years of practicing exclusively personal injury law in the Houston area. If you need the advice of experienced personal injury attorneys for your work accident or work injury, you can call 1-800-WIN-WIN1 or 713 739 1250 for a free consultation, or submit your case online.

Various local media outlets are reporting the death of two men in a barge fire in Freeport. The men are 31-year old Jose Jesus Gonzalez-Alvarez and 41-year old Daniel Santacruz. The Saturday April 3rd fire was at Texas Barge & Boat, Inc. near the 4100 block of Floodgate Road. An ABC Channel 13 report says one man was caught in the blaze and the other man perished when he went in to save him. The Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident as an industrial accident. KHOU said that the fire was in a cargo vessel that was sitting on top of a dry docked barge at the time of the fire. Freeport, Texas is about 65 miles south of Houston.

The Santa Fe, Texas police department has confirmed that a collapse at a construction project at Santa Fe High School has claimed the life of 21-year old Richard Steinecke II of New Caney, Texas. Mr. Steinecke passed away at the University of Texas Medical Branch due to his injuries. Two other employees sustained leg injuries in the collapse: 26-year old Cody Key who is from Conroe and Escolastico Mendez who is from Houston. Sgt. Eric Bruss, a spokesman for Santa Fe Police Department, said Mr. Steinecke sustained massive internal injuries in the incident. The three men were involved in the second phase of an expansion project at Santa Fe High School when there was a partial collapse of the structure at about 9:35AM on Friday March 18th. Mr. Steinecke fell nearly 50 feet and was then pinned under a metal beam weighing thousands of pounds. A Click2Houston.com story reports that the three injured workers were employed by P&C Construction Erectors of Porter, Texas.  The cause of the structure’s collapse is still under investigation. The construction project is to build a new auditorium: no children were present at the school at the time.

Tuesday February 8, 2011: A midday fire caused an explosion at Enterprise Products‘ west storage facility 35 miles east of Houston in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The fire burned well into the night Tuesday and company officials are uncertain how long the fire will continue to burn. It could not be ruled out that the fire was being fueled by gas products stored underground: if that is true the fire could be kept burning indefinitely. Fortunately no injuries are known at this time. The fire caused a plume of smoke long enough to be detected on the National Weather Service radar. A contract worker who may have been in the vicinity of the explosion has not yet been accounted for.

The Enterprise Products plant processes and stores liquids that are separated from natural gas. At the moment emergency workers are not trying to extinguish the flames, rather they are concentrating on keeping nearby parts of the plant as cool as possible. Enterprise Products spokesman Rick Rainey says that nothing burning at the Mont Belvieu plant is toxic. Rainey said that 8-10 workers are typically in the facility and all of them got out safely, except for the one contract worker who hasn’t been located. The man is a maintenance worker for Turner Industries and still had not been found as of 7:45PM Tuesday. Rainey said that the company are in touch with the man’s family but no further details were released.

Click here for Channel 2’s report of the Mont Belvieu, Texas Enterprise Products gas plant explosion

Click here for the Houston Chronicle’s report of the Mont Belvieu, Texas plant explosion

Click here for Fox News Houston’s story on the Mont Belvieu, Texas gas plant explosion at Enterprise Products

If you or a family member have been injured at work, such as in a plant explosion, call Houston-based personal injury attorneys Smith & Hassler for a free consultation regarding your legal rights. Smith & Hassler has represented hard-working Texans injured on the job for more than 20-years, including workers injured in the Texas City, Texas BP plant explosion in 2005.

February 6, 2011: ABC Channel 13 eyewitness news is reporting that a Harris County deputy crashed his patrol car into a tree after swerving the vehicle when he was fired upon by occupants of a vehicle he was chasing. The chase started when the deputy tried to pull over a vehicle for not having a license plate in Meyerland on Beechnut near the West 610 Loop in Houston. A chase ensued that ended on Holly in Bellaire. The suspect vehicle came to a sudden stop and the deputy took action to avoid a gun battle according to J.J. Laine of the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable‘s Office. The suspect vehicle fled the scene after the deputy crashed: police are still looking for the vehicle. The vehicle is described as a silver or dark gray Ford Taurus type vehicle; the deputy was transported to the hospital with minor injuries where he was treated and released.

Precinct 5 Deputy Constable sustained minor injuries in an accident during a chase.

BP has issued a statement that two workers at its Texas City plant were admitted to hospital after suffering burns caused by steam.  The accident happened at approximately 4:00pm on Tuesday September 21st as the workers were working at Pipestill 3B.  One injured worker was life-flighted to UTMB Galveston and the other taken by ambulance to Mainland Medical Center in Texas City. The beleaguered BP Texas City plant is the site of the 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more.  The refinery is currently under investigation for an apparent 41-day release of Benzene that occurred at the same time as the explosion on the Deep Horizon rig.