MEC&F Expert Engineers : NORCO OIL REFINERY CONTRACT WORKER DIES AFTER COLLAPSING; OSHA INQUIRY UNDERWAY

Thursday, April 2, 2015

NORCO OIL REFINERY CONTRACT WORKER DIES AFTER COLLAPSING; OSHA INQUIRY UNDERWAY







Heavy equipment being moved into the Valero St. Charles Refinery in Norco on May 23, 2012. (Brett Duke / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

MARCH 18, 2015

NORCO, LOUISIANA

An investigation is underway at the Valero St. Charles oil refinery in Norco after a contract worker collapsed on the job and died. The cause of his death has not been determined, his employer said.

The man was working March 17 when he became unresponsive around 3:30 p.m., said A.J. Rodriguez, a spokesman for his employer, JVIC of Houston. He was taken to St. Charles Parish Hospital in Luling and died the next day at 2:30 p.m.

"We don't know the cause of death," said Rodriguez, who would not identify the man. "I'm not sure if the investigation will determine that. We'll see what the conclusions are."

JVIC is an industrial maintenance company that provides specialty services to the process industry. It investigating along with Valero and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said. A Valero representative referred questions to JVIC. An OSHA spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions Thursday.  

Rodriguez described the death as an "isolated incident" that didn't involve any plant-related operations or other employees. He would not say what type of work the man was hired to do or what the man was doing at the time of the collapse.

"It was just with that one individual," Rodriguez said. "There was no operational or mechanical (work) related to the incident itself."

Rodriguez said the company's policy is not to release the man's identity "out of respect for his family." He said the man was not from Louisiana, but he would not provide the man's age or say how long the man had worked for JVIC.
He said the investigation is expected to wrap up next month. More information could be released then.