Attorney Daily - Your source for the most important legal news

Several months after an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, with drastic amounts of oil continuing to spew into the water daily, cleanup efforts continue, but the battle to contain the oil will take an unprecedented amount of time. Energy giant BP appears to be shuffling CEO Tony Hayward out of the spotlight a day after the British native roiled Congress with what critics called “evasive” testimony about the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a BP well. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said that managing director Robert Dudley will take over Hayward’s role in responding to the crisis, according to a report by U.K.-based Sky News.

The spill, however, has not ended with some 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf daily, according to the latest estimates, yet Svanberg indicated that Dudley is taking over for Hayward now. Dudley is one of the few Americans in BP’s top ranks and received a total of $6.4 million in compensation last year, according to the research firm Equilar. Dudley joined BP through the merger with Amoco, which he had worked for since the late 1970s. Put in charge of tough assignments, Dudley was first charged with managing BP’s Russian joint venture earlier this decade, and is now responsible for BP’s new unit created to deal with the financial fallout of the oil spill.

BP said that Hayward, 53, will remain the company’s CEO. Last year, Hayward’s compensation totaled $14.3 million, according to Equilar.

Hayward has been the face of the oil spill and the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 men and devastated Gulf shores. He has been excoriated in recent weeks not only for his role as head of the company blamed for the spill, but also for his public statements, including the now-infamous, “I’d like my life back,” a comment Hayward made while explaining his desire to quickly resolve the disaster.

On June 17, 2010, members of Congress lambasted Hayward during a hearing by the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee for refusing to say whether BP made dangerous and risky decisions leading up to the spill, as critics, including executives at other oil companies, have suggested.

Hayward said he would not draw any conclusions about the accident until investigations into the disaster were completed, a statement he reiterated several times throughout the hearing, much to the consternation of the congressmen questioning him.

“You’re really insulting our intelligence, with all due respect, by not giving us any answers and telling us you have to wait for some investigation,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

On May 8, 2010, a ferry slammed into a dock in New York’s borough of Staten Island, injuring dozens of passengers in an accident authorities blamed on a mechanical problem, according to a recent Reuters news report.

The Staten Island Ferry boat seemed to speed up as it approached the dock in a light rain, according to passengers and witnesses in the ferry terminal. “It looks like it was a mechanical problem,” Janette Sadik-Khan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, said at a news conference. She said it appeared that the captain was unable to slow the boat as it approached the dock.

Sadik-Khan said 37 people were hurt in the accident, including 17 who were sent to the hospital. But she said the injuries were not considered serious. The ferry involved in today’s accident is the same vessel that was involved in a 2003 accident.

Passengers were put on stretchers or in wheelchairs after being taken off the ferry about 15 minutes after the accident.

The boat involved in the accident was the Andrew J. Barberi, which also crashed at the same terminal in St. George, Staten Island in October 2003, killing 11 people. The boat struck the pier at full speed in that incident. The captain, who was taking painkillers at the time, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In the latest accident, Sadik-Khan said roughly 250 passengers and 18 crew members were on board when the crash occurred around 9:25 a.m. eastern time. The ferry can carry thousands of passengers.

“It just slammed right into the dock,” said one passenger, who was on the ferry. “There was a young lady with her child that flew, literally” on impact, he told NY 1 cable news station.

Another passenger told local radio he heard “break, break” on the loudspeaker just before impact.

Another eyewitness who was waiting in the terminal to board said people panicked and ran as the boat hit.

The Staten Island Ferry transports an estimated 20 million people a year between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. The free ferry service is popular with tourists and commuters.

Maritime workers who have been injured are protected by the Jones Act. The Jones Act is actually part of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, which focuses on and deals with the rights of injured seamen. Workers on oil rigs, cargo ships, crew boats, barges, transportation boats and dredges are all protected under the Jones Act.

On April 21, 2010, helicopters, ships and an airplane searched the waters off Louisiana’s coast for at least 11 workers missing after an explosion and fire that left an offshore drilling platform tilting in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recent Associated Press news report.

The majority of the 126 people were believed to have escaped safely after the explosion on the rig Deepwater Horizon at approximately 10 p.m. on April 20, 2010, Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O’Berry said. The rig, about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana’s tip, was listing about 10 degrees and still burning as of this morning.

Seven workers were reported critically injured, Coast Guard Lt. Sue Kerver said. Two were taken to a trauma center in Mobile, Alabama, where there is a burn unit, but the nature of their injuries was unclear, she said. At least two were taken to a suburban New Orleans hospital.

The rig was drilling but was not in production, according to Greg Panagos, spokesman for its owner, Transocean Ltd., in Houston. The rig was under contract to BP PLC. BP spokesman Darren Beaubo said all BP personnel were safe but he didn’t know how many BP workers had been on the rig.

According to Transocean’s website, the Deepwater Horizon is 396 feet long and 256 feet wide. The rig was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard in South Korea. The site is known as the Macondo prospect, in 5,000 feet of water.

The rig is designed to operate in water depths up to 8,000 feet and has a maximum drill depth of about 5.5 miles. It can accommodate a crew of up to 130.