Drilling Rig Accident Takes Life Of Texas Man in Southwest Oklahoma

October 14th
JACKSON COUNTY, Oklahoma – An accident at a drilling rig in Jackson County, Oklahoma killed a Electra, Texas derrick man Thursday afternoon. Air evac and other emergency units were called to a drilling site accident one mile south and two miles east of Eldorado Thursday afternoon but were soon turned back as it became apparent the oil worker had died.

Cecil Haley,34, of Electra Texas was killed by injuries he sustained working the board on the Big Giant rig. Haley was struck in the head by a stand of drill pipe and killed instantly.

The accident occurred around 1:15 p.m. Thursday on the Big Giant Drilling rig near El Dorado, Oklahoma. It appears the workers were tripping pipe at the time of the accident.

A witness stated he heard a "loud boom" and then his co-worker was dead. Photos of the finger board show the damage exerted by the stand of drill pipe, possibly caused by setting the blocks down on the stand.

Jackson County Sheriff Roger Levick said the accident happened somehow when the pipe Haley was maneuvering either didn’t latch, unlatched from the drill stem, or somehow just sprung back and hit him.

El Dorado emergency responders and firefighters waited solemnly on the ground, unable to help, as one firefighter climbed up the derrick ladder of the Big Giant rig to retrieve the body.

OSHA investigators and the OSBI are at the scene conducting an investigation

Authorities stated that Cecil was wearing his safety harness, hard hat and following proper safety procedures at the time of the accident. Haley had only been working for Big Giant Drilling for 2 months.

Weekly rig reports show Big Giant was drilling an 8500' an exploratory horizontal well for GLB Exploration at the time of the accident

Comment by Kenneth R. McDonald on October 15, 2011 at 7:40pm: God be with this Brothers Family and with all of his co-workers.

Comment by Shannon McDonald on October 16, 2011 at 6:02pm: Just goes to show that even in todays safety culture environment that it CAN still happen. May God comfort his family and those involved.

Comment by Kim Mullen on October 16, 2011 at 10:21pm: May God be with him and his family. Prayers for all including the crew.

Comment by khaled Mohamed shehab on October 19, 2011 at 3:06pm: Just because “We have always done it this way” does not mean that the hazard is not present. We all need

to take a step back and review our actions and practices upon the completion of each job and ask; “What

went right, what went wrong, what could we have done different?”

Prayers for the family and the crews

Comment by Michelle Smith on October 20, 2011 at 1:41am: may god be with this young mans family, and crew!!

Comment by SAMMY BELL on October 21, 2011 at 7:50pm: may god be with all of his brothers, family & co-workers / we ask god everyday to watch over all of us in the oilfield and our families at home / i have seen this same accident happen back in 1981 in elk city ok the elevators did not close all the way and the driller set excessive block down on the tool joint once it was stabbed into the tooljoint box end in the rotary table and sling shot effect took place and it killed a dia-log wireline hand / thank god we have cameras on the derrick monkey boards on these rigs today to help the driller wath for things like this and prevent them from happening

Comment by albinoaligator Clay Campbell on October 30, 2011 at 11:47am: sending our thoughts and prayers to his brothers, crew and family

Comment by Carl Soileau on December 6, 2011 at 4:23am: Prayers go out to this family May God bless you in your time of need

Comment by Jeana Winchester on December 9, 2011 at 6:29pm: My Heart Aches for this young mans Family Friends and Crew...R.I.P. Cecil !!!!

AREA	LAST COUNT DATE	COUNT	CHANGE FROM PRIOR COUNT	DATE OF PRIOR COUNT	CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR	DATE OF LAST YEARS COUNT
UNITED STATES	6/14/13	1771	+6	6/7/13	-200	6/15/12
CANADA	6/14/13	176	+24	6/7/13	-72	6/15/12
USA OFFSHORE	6/14/13	54	-2	6/7/13	+3	6/15/12
INTERNATIONAL	05/2013	1283	-18	4/2013	+58	5/2012

Recent Rotary Rig Count June 14th, 2013

Drilling Rig Accident Takes Life Of Texas Man in Southwest Oklahoma

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