OSHA Kept In The Dark
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Chevron Phillips Chemical won’t talk to us about the horrible injury to Ian Alexander. But what we learned from OSHA should prompt a review of the way these tragedies are reported in the first place.
“He’s not the same man he was. At all,” expressed Michael Alexander.
Tens of thousands of our viewers on social media have already seen the shocking story of Ian Alexander.
“I see these shadow people and I hear voices sometimes. My world becomes something else, it’s not enjoyable,” expressed Ian Alexander.
The huge Chevron Phillips chemical company in Baytown is accused in court of simply ruining his life and escaping any punishment from OSHA. The federal agency that’s supposed to protect worker safety.
“Everything he was doing for his family is now lost because Chevron wanted to save a few thousand dollars and a few hours of productivity,” said Chad Pinkerton.
“It’s miserable,” expressed Ian.
Ian worked for Vallen and was repairing a fire hydrant at the CP Chem plant. He wanted the plant water supply turned off so he could rebuild the whole thing. The answer from a CP Chem fire specialist was no, a full repair wasn’t necessary.
The pressure buildup caused the hydrant to explode in the air like a rocket.
“Honestly, it’s really hard for me to remember certain things,” said Ian.
This was the result, a traumatic brain injury that has changed this husband and father of two forever.
“He’s just a zombie,” said pastor Joseph Reynolds.
Pastor Joseph Reynolds has been the families spiritual advisor for two decades.
“You have a person that’s lost his worth as a husband, as father, and as a provider,” continued Reynold.
He can’t even read a book to his kids.
“Somebody needs to be held accountable for it because they basically changed my sons life,” said Michael Alexander.
The CP Chem supervisors whose decision ruined this young man’s life still has a job today, but Ian may never be able to work again.
The response on Facebook about Chevron Phillips chemical is what we expected.
“Shame on you CP Chem what a disgusting act on your part.”
“They need to step up and take fault and blame.”
“OSHA should complete a full investigation.”
But as we investigated this two-and-a-half-year-old accident we uncovered an epic failure in the reporting of this kind of tragedy.
CP Chem never reported to OSHA at all, its contractor did.
“We didn’t issue any citations we didn’t conduct an inspection,” said David Squires.
Vallen was allowed to self-investigate, but they did send OSHA pictures of the fire hydrant, not the horrible injury to Ian. And he’s the one OSHA is supposed to protect, not the darn fire hydrant.
“No pictures of the injury” said Dolcefino Consulting’s Andrea Palacio. “No. And that’s not normally something that we would require them to do,” replied David Squires.
That’s a pretty big loophole in OSHA’s ability to police industrial accidents.
OSHA did not know Ian had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“If he knew when we received the information that he had a severe brain injury we probably would have opened up an investigation or an inspection,” stated David Squires.
Key facts were kept from OSHA.
OSHA didn’t know that the CP Chem fire specialist was recommended for termination after Ian got terribly hurt, or that higher ups kept him on the payroll.
Looking at the OSHA website you can see Vallen reported the accident as if it happened at their property, not the CP Chemical plant.
“It should they should have it at the incident site your correct on that” said Mhekeba Hager.
When you look at OSHA’s public database of accidents, you’ll notice CP Chem only reported one incident since 2015. Eight years. But someone fractured two elbows. But further inspection shows 7 other accidents reported by contractors working at the plant.
On April 23, 2016, a FLUOR employee was crushed between two cranes at the plant address, he died.
FLUOR reported four other injuries. Mobley industrial and USA Environmental also reported incidents.
How many incidents at the big sprawling plant maybe hiding in the database? How many other workers have been hurt while CP Chem escaped a real investigation?
Someone tell Shawna Alexander this is justice.
“The man who is here looks like my husband, but he’s not there,” expressed Shawna.
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