Practice Area

The sheer scale of tankers and container ships creates a high-risk environment. Cargo ship owners often prioritize speed and profit over safety, leading to preventable disasters.

• Heavy Machinery & Equipment Malfunctions: Defective winches, cranes, and cargo-handling gear can cause catastrophic crush injuries or amputations.

• Hazardous Material Exposure: Tanker crews are at constant risk of chemical burns, respiratory issues, and long-term illnesses from toxic cargo like crude oil or combustible gases.

• Slip, Trip, and Falls: Open hatches, oily decks, and steep ladders on massive vessels are leading causes of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and spinal fractures.

Tug and barge operations are notoriously dangerous due to the “line-handling” required during towing and docking.

• Line & Winch Accidents: Snapped tow lines can act like a whip, causing fatal “snap-back” injuries or severed limbs.

• Crushing Injuries: Working between a tug and a barge during mooring often leads to workers being caught in “pinch points,” resulting in severe crushing of the torso or extremities.

• Overwork & Fatigue: Small crews often work grueling shifts, leading to exhaustion-related errors that cause collisions or falls overboard.

Dredge crews in the Houston Ship Channel and Gulf Coast face unique risks from the heavy, vibrating machinery required to clear sediment.

• Cutterhead & Pipeline Accidents: Managing massive suction pipes and rotating cutterheads involves high-pressure equipment that can fail violently.

• Unstable Work Surfaces: Constant vibration and shifting water conditions make dredge decks incredibly slippery and unstable, leading to chronic back and knee injuries.

Inland waterways, rivers, and bays are crowded with workboats, crew boats, and supply vessels. These “vessels in navigation” are fully covered by the Jones Act.

• Collisions: High traffic in narrow channels leads to sudden groundings or collisions, flinging workers against steel bulkheads.

• Man Overboard: Small workboats are more susceptible to capsizing or throwing workers into the water, where drowning and hypothermia are immediate threats.

Commercial diving is a specialized field with some of the strictest safety regulations, yet contractors frequently cut corners on decompression plans and equipment checks.

• Decompression Sickness (“The Bends”): Failure to monitor ascent rates or provide adequate hyperbaric support can lead to permanent neurological damage.

• Equipment Failure: Negligent maintenance of air flow systems or communication gear can turn a routine dive into a fatal event.

• Propeller Strikes: Failure to properly secure or lockout vessel engines while divers are in the water is a common source of catastrophic injury.

For those classified as seamen—typically workers who spend at least 30% of their time on a vessel in navigation—the Jones Act provides a powerful right to sue an employer for negligence.

• Broader Compensation: Unlike standard workers’ comp, a Jones Act claim allows you to seek “full” damages, including pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.

• Low Burden of Proof: To win, you only need to show that your employer’s negligence played even a small part—”however slight”—in causing your neck or back injury.

• Pre-existing Conditions: You are still entitled to compensation even if the accident simply aggravated a previous back issue or degenerative disc disease.