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The employers of a dockworker’s family, Virginia International Terminals Inc., has agreed to pay that family $500,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the surviving family members of a port worker killed at Portsmouth Marine Terminal in 2007, reports say. The estate of Vernon Leroy White Jr. alleged negligence on the part of Virginia International Terminals and two workers after White was crushed to death when a cargo container crushed him. White, 42, was survived by a son and daughter,…

A Delta Airlines mechanic was killed when the landing gear doors in the wheel well area of an Airbus A319 that was to depart to St. Louis at 7 AM somehow malfunctioned or activated and killed him. The mechanic, 47 year old Jesse Paul Stygar of Rosemount, MN, was found inside the landing gear doors and had no pulse.  Reports say Stygar died of a head injury. The airline – as well as local officials – are investigating, and the…

As oil continues to gush from the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico, another crisis this month nearly 50 years ago is being remembered. The C.P. Baker, a catamaran-type drilling barge had started to drill when the water around the vessel began to bubble, boil and eventually geyser up with some force between the hulls of the C.P Baker – similar to the way the BP disaster started. When water entered the vessel through open doors on the main…

A commercial fishing skipper’s decision to make a mayday call moments before the boat sank probably saved the lives of his crew, but also may have cost him his own life. Reports say that Captain Robert Royer suffered a fatal head injury while leaving the 75-foot Northern Belle earlier this month just before it foundered on the Gulf of Alaska 50 miles south of Montague Island. Reportedly, the vessel’s Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon did not activate, so Royer, stayed…

As he walked behind a truck, a an oil and gas “swamper” tripped as the truck was backing up with a load and was killed when the vehicle drove over him, reports say. The workplace accident occurred in June when a drilling rig was being moved to another site. With approximately ten loads remaining to transport off the site, a pole truck driver and his helper – or swamper — were relocating a grated landing. A sling had been secured…