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Injuries from explosions are quite rare, but many jobs and industries across Texas have an increased risk of these kinds of injuries. Moreover, many defective products and common accidents – such as car accidents – could lead to explosions and other injuries caused by fires. If you or a loved one was hurt in an explosion in the Houston area, contact The Queenan Law Firm right away.
Our Houston explosion injury attorneys represent injury victims and their families and work to get them financial compensation for the medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering from their injuries. To talk to one of our lawyers and set up a free legal consultation on your case, contact us today at (817) 476-1797.
Determining Who is at Fault for Explosion Injuries and Accidents in Texas
Explosions rarely happen without some accident or mistake that led to the conditions to create the explosion. For instance, a gas leak might cause an explosion, but properly installed pipes rarely lead to gas leaks. Similarly, an oil refinery may have an explosion, but for an explosion to occur there, multiple levels of safety systems would need to fail. Generally speaking, these kinds of accidents often involve some level of negligence, but the proper party to hold responsible for that negligence might not always be so obvious.
In explosions caused by an accident, it is often simple enough to find out who caused the accident and hold them responsible. Auto accidents can result in an explosion if a gas tank is punctured and catches on a spark, in which case the person who initially caused the crash would be at fault. Similarly, the person who causes the accident can be held liable for an accident on a construction site or job site where an individual’s errors or mistakes led to a gas line being broken or a tank of acetylene or other fuel being breached.
Accidents in the workplace might be more complex in some cases. Although the individual that caused the accident might be held liable for the resulting injuries, the employer might also share responsibility. An employer can often be held liable for injuries on a job site, especially if they resulted from improper safety procedures or poor employee training. In some cases, you might need to file through workers’ compensation, but Texas law allows you to opt out of workers’ comp. when you start a job so that you can preserve your right to sue.
Injuries from explosions also occur in oil collection and production jobs. Once again, these injuries are often caused by safety equipment and safety systems malfunctioning or being overloaded because of serious errors or structural issues at the job site. Workers on oil rigs on land as well as refineries and pipelines might be able to sue their employer if they opted out of workers’ compensation. Offshore oil workers are often entitled to sue the oil rig or ship owner and their employer for injuries sustained working at sea.
Other explosion injuries happen when defective products, toys, and appliances have serious manufacturing or design defects. Lithium-ion batteries can overheat and lead to fires or explosions if their design has problems or the battery’s housing is breached and begins to leak. In these kinds of accidents, you may be able to sue the company that manufactured the defective product.
Suing for Explosion Injuries in Texas
In most cases of moderate to severe injuries caused by someone else’s negligence, you may be able to take the responsible party or parties to court and sue them to recover the compensation you need. This means that you will need to prove that they were responsible for your injuries and prove what damages you are entitled to before a court can grant you the compensation you need. Our attorneys can help with this kind of injury lawsuit.
To prove your injuries in court, you must show 4 elements of your case:
- The at-fault party owed you a legal duty, usually based on your relationship to the defendant (e.g., as another driver on the road, an employee, or the purchaser of a product they manufactured).
- The at-fault party breached that duty, usually by failing to do something they were required to do.
- The breach of duty caused your injuries.
- The injuries resulted in damages you can be compensated for.
The first two elements will depend heavily on the specific circumstances of your case: who was involved, what your relationship with them was, what was happening at the time of the accident, etc. The issue of causation might be complex in some cases where the explosion was caused by a spark that passed through many steps before leading to the explosion, but these kinds of issues are rare.
To get compensation for the damages the accident caused you, you must prove your injuries and damages to the court. Photographs of the injuries and medical records explaining their severity are often sufficient proof of the injuries you faced. Proof of the damages the injuries caused can come from medical bills, pay stubs, financial records, and your testimony about how the injury affects your life. Your lawyer can help you calculate damages and claim them in court.
Call Our Houston Explosion Accident and Injury Attorneys for a Free Consultation
If you or a loved one was injured by an explosion at work, in a car accident, or from a defective product, contact a lawyer as soon as you can. The Houston explosion injury attorneys at The Queenan Law Firm represent injury victims and their families, and we work to help them get compensation for the damages the accident caused them. To set up a free legal consultation and learn more about filing a claim, call our attorneys today at (817) 476-1797.