Deadliest danger isn’t at the rig but on the road

By Ian Urbina | The New York Times | May 14, 2012

In its continuing series of stories on the risks of natural gas drilling, the New York Times finds that one of the dangers for workers in the industry is deadly truck accidents after working long hours on a rig. Over the last decade, more than 300 oil and gas workers have been killed in highway crashes.

After working 17 hours straight at a natural gas well in Ohio, Timothy Roth and three other crew members climbed into their company truck around 10 o’clock one night last July and began their four-hour drive back to their drilling service company’s shop in West Virginia.

When they were just 10 minutes from home, the driver fell asleep at the wheel. The truck veered off the highway and slammed into a sign that sheared off part of the vehicle’s side, killing Mr. Roth.

Read the full article here.

Gas Rush Stories: Openness and transparency about Marcellus Shale

As a news organization, PublicSource has a special interest in the way public records in Pennsylvania are made available under the Right-to-Know law. We've written about it numerous times. Here, in a video by Kirsi Jansa, experts at a public forum held by the Freedom of Information Coalition discuss getting information on Marcellus Shale drilling.

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