Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 002 Hazard: STRUCK BY

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to the condition(s) listed below: West Texas Energy Service, LLC., Rig 2, Wildhorse "21" #5, Howard County, TX. For the period of time up to and including 09/17/07, employees were exposed to struck-by hazards due to the lack of anti-two blocking or some other device that would positively prevent the traveling block from striking the crown block. API Recommended Practice 54, Third Edition, April 1999, titled "Recommended Practice for Occupational Safety for Oil and Gas Drilling and Servicing Operations", states in Section 6, Paragraph 6.3.2, "Well operations involving the rig shall not be commenced until the rig is rigged up in a safe manner." Among other methods, one feasible and acceptable abatement method to correct this hazard is to equip the drilling rig(s) with anti-two blocking, crown-o-matics or other positive devices that will prevent the traveling block from making contact with the crown block.