BP Texas City Refinery Blast Victim: BP Keeps 'Killing People'

July 7, 2010 — -- A 2005 accident at a BP refinery confined David Leining to a wheelchair for six months. It killed Ralph Dean's father-in-law and left his wife badly scarred and too sick to work.

Both men say someone should go to jail over what happened.

BP officials "didn't get in any trouble for killing people," said Dean, 49, a former engineering firm worker who, along with his wife and father-in-law, once contracted with BP. "They're still doing it... You're consumable if you're a blue-collar worker for BP. If you get hurt, they throw a little money at it and go on."

Five years before April's Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion killed 11 workers, energy giant BP was grappling with another fatal explosion, this time at its refinery in Texas City, Texas. That explosion, in March, 2005, killed 15 people and injured many more, including Leining, 58, a retired BP construction adviser, and Dean's wife.

Now, some survivors of the blast, the families of those killed and their lawyers are trying to inject new life into a months-long campaign to get the government to reopen its investigation into the causes of the Texas City accident. They say they hope individual BP executives will be held accountable for the accident and might even see jail time.

Brent Coon and David Perry, two of the lawyers representing the blast victims, said the Gulf of Mexico explosion and the massive oil spill that continues today should encourage the Department of Justice to seek to revoke a 2007 plea deal that effectively ended investigation of the Texas City accident.

"The problem is (BP's) system," Coon said. "The way it's set up, it puts safety last."

"The fact is, they are a serial killer, a serial polluter, a serial fraudster, and one would hope that the prosecuting authorities would decide to be serious about them," Perry said.

BP and the Department of Justice declined to comment on the Texas City plea deal revocation efforts.

Under the terms of the deal, BP pleaded guilty to a felony charge for violating the federal Clean Air Act, agreed to serve a three-year probationary period and to pay a $50 million fine. (BP has also compensated victims of the blast, including the Deans -- the couple now lives off their settlement and Ralph Dean said he gave up his job to care for his wife.) In return, the Justice Department agreed not to bring additional criminal charges against BP.