A lawsuit has been jointly filed by the family of Jose Wilfredo Perez Jr., a contractor who succumbed to a fatal hydrogen sulfide gas release at PEMEX Deer Park refinery on October 10. The incident, which critically exposed dozens of workers, additionally prompted a shelter-in-place order for nearby Deer Park and Pasadena residents, as reported by Click2Houston.
According to the allegations contained within the lawsuit, the gas leak comprising toxic and flammable gases occurred at around 4:20 p.m. at the refinery, which processes crude oil into various fuels. Perez was positioned in the SR8 unit when he was exposed to military-grade levels of toxicity, a factor that irrevocably led to his death. The suit accuses the refinery of negligence and gross negligence, citing failures to properly alert workers and maintain safety protocols, even going so far as to allege completely inadequate alarms were a contributing factor. "The failure to implement and enforce stringent safety protocols has led to preventable and devastating losses," attorney Benny Agosto Jr. noted, as reported by Click2Houston.
Seeking damages of no less than $1 million, the lawsuit is aimed at holding the parties responsible for the incident accountable for premises liability, wrongful death, and other grievances. The legal claim purports that the defendants allowed the hazardous release to transpire without offering timely warnings to its diligent workers. The tragic impact has been magnified by the premature death of Perez, just 28 years old at the time of the catastrophe, laying bare the human costs that such industrial accidents accrue.
"This catastrophic release led to life-threatening injuries for several workers, a shelter-in-place order for Deer Park and Pasadena, and the tragic deaths of two individuals," attorney Benny Agosto Jr. said in a news release, as reported by Fox26Houston. The lawsuit ambiguously implicates negligence, gross negligence, premises liability, respondeat superior, and wrongful death, aiming to compel an examination of industrial safety practices, especially those concerning highly toxic substances like hydrogen sulfide which are known to pose severe health threats.
