As the Practice Lead of the Health & Safety discipline at 30 Forensic Engineering, I investigate workplace critical incidents and fatalities. I’ve investigated fatalities in many industries, including construction, utility, mining, and oil and gas. I’ve investigated oil and gas fatalities in both Canada and the US.

I recently started watching the TV drama series “Landman”, a show about the oil industry in Texas. While I’ve been entertained by the show’s opening episodes, I’ve never had a series keep me up at night quite like Landman. I typically use TV as a way to wind down after a day of work; I’ll watch a game with my family, or a show with my wife, and turn my brain off until the next day. But Landman hits me differently. I can’t sleep. It’s too close to my reality.

As a Health & Safety investigator, I don’t work for the government. I’m retained by legal counsel in anticipation of litigation, to provide a comprehensive third-party investigation. My role is to identify contributing factors to the incident, provide conclusions and recommendations, and ultimately help my clients make informed decisions based on the legal advice that results from my investigation. The government may never see my work, or I may appear at trial as an expert witness.

Watching Landman, I can’t help but draw parallels with my real-world workplace fatality investigations. In the official Landman trailer, Tommy Norris, a petroleum ‘Landman’ and Operations VP at M-Tex Oil (played by Billy Bob Thornton) asserts, “Men die. Oil Companies don’t.” That quote pulled me in.

In Episode One, a young worker joins a rig crew. We come to learn that the young worker is Cooper Norris, Tommy’s son. While at the rig on his first day on the job, the Crew Lead tells Cooper to climb the derrick to the top of the rig to look for a non-existent “tucker valve.” During the scene, the site supervisor is standing on the ground with three members of the rig crew, and casually says, “I can’t have Tommy Norris’ son dying on my pad, get him down from there.”

Luckily, Cooper is properly fastened to his fall arrest system. Terrified, he slips on one of the rungs and falls about 20 feet before his fall is arrested. When Cooper confronts the crew about hazing him, they reply “First day, man. Gotta happen.”

Throughout Canada, we have legislation that addresses workplace violence and harassment. Hazing is considered harassment and possibly even violence. With oil and gas being a major industry in Alberta, I thought it would be useful to do a refresher on Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act, specifically, an employer’s “Obligation to workers,” found in Section 5. It plainly states that workers must cooperate with their supervisor. In Ontario, the legislation explicitly states, “No worker shall engage in any prank.”

Based on this, there would be nothing abnormal about Cooper climbing to the top of the rig in the course of his normal work, as instructed, so long as he had been trained on the hazards and the work he was about to do and protected from a fall. What’s not acceptable is the hazing. Putting a (likely) untrained worker in this hazardous situation is a direct violation. The reality is that this behaviour is common in risky work industries, like oil and gas, mining, and construction, and exists in all industries. This is why the legislation was created in the first place.

This Landman Scene Was a Sign of Things to Come

As Episode One comes to an end, the crew is working at a rig, hammering a wrench to try and release a seized bolt. The hammering creates a spark, and an explosion occurs that results in a triple fatality. Everyone dies except Cooper.

The fatality investigation begins in Episode Two, when M-Tex Oil retains the fictitious Texas law firm Shepherd-Hastings as counsel for the liability case. This is where the fiction of the show and my reality really begin to entwine.

A lawyer named, Rebecca Falcone, arrives and is taken to the incident site. I can relate to Ms. Falcone’s experience of showing up at someone else’s workplace and being led to the incident scene by an employee who has “been doing this work for 30 years” and “this has never happened before.”

There is always an awkward first phase of the investigation wherein I have to explain that I’m not an expert in the employee’s work. In general, the employee who assists me with access does not understand how or why I am qualified to investigate. Often, there has been an internal incident review, and employees don’t understand why a third-party investigation is required at all. I’ve been asked, “an environmental engineer from Toronto? What do you know about [fracking, utility, or mining]?”

Photo credit: Emerson Miller / Paramount+ Original

The short answer is that I will learn what I need to know. But the proper response is to explain the reason I’m there: to help identify the contributing factors and to provide recommendations to be implemented so that it is less likely a similar incident will occur in the future.

As Tommy Norris begins to question Ms. Falcone’s qualifications, he says, “maybe they should send another attorney.” Tommy then explains what he thinks occurred, stating, “There was a leak. A roughneck created a spark when he tried to open a valve with a hammer and a wrench.”

Tommy knows this because his son Cooper was injured at the scene and told him what happened. Tommy even tried and failed himself to open a similar seized valve. He injured himself in the process, accidently hammering his pinky finger and ultimately losing the tip of it. But in the real world, evidence like this is not readily available without detailed interviews of the witnesses – if there are any witnesses.

As a safety expert, it’s likely that I wouldn’t have the industry-specific technical expertise to figure out the cause of Landman’s explosion on my own. But with the help of other expert disciplines at 30 Forensic Engineering, such as Fire & Electrical, and Energy & Power, together, we would identify the cause.

The feeling that hits you when you identify the cause of a fatal incident is unlike any other I have ever experienced. It is indescribable, but I will try: It’s haunting. It’s devastating. But it’s a relief.

When Tommy shrugs off the seriousness of the incident and insinuates that it’s all just part of the job, Ms. Falcone explains the incident could be a “nine-figure lawsuit.”

In Canada, nine-figures is likely high. However, OHS fines can reach seven figures, and the courts have discretion to impose other penalties, especially if organizations are found to be criminally negligent in causing workplace death. Criminal charges can apply, including jail time.

Ms. Falcone says, “I’m on your side, Tommy.” But Tommy knows the truth. While Ms. Falcone has been retained by M-Tex Oil, she’s not really on ‘his’ side. She represents the business.

Immediately after the site visit, Tommy calls Monty Miller, the owner of M-Tex Oil (played by Jon Hamm) in a rage.

Photo credit: Emerson Miller / Paramount+ Original

He says to Monty that Shepherd-Hastings “Sent somebody out here to hang me out.” And explains that M-Tex Oil doesn’t “have a well that will pass OSHA standards. Not one.” Tommy seems to know that he is in trouble.

In Episode Three, while on the golf course, Monty discusses the situation with Shepherd-Hastings’ managing partner Clay Chandler. Mr. Chandler describes some of the liability risk to Monty, including, “a pumpjack with numerous OSHA violations, a workover crew violating more OSHA regulations,” which were occurring under Tommy’s supervision.

Mr. Chandler also informs Monty that he could be found negligent because he took no action against Tommy, “who knowingly violated every rule he came across,” which would make Monty the “responsible party in litigation,” and could result in an “$80 million lawsuit and a mandatory shutdown from OSHA.”

I’m sympathetic to Tommy. I’m sympathetic to all supervisors who have the responsibility of ensuring worker safety. In Alberta, “competent,” in the context of the OHS Act, is defined as “adequately qualified, suitably trained, and with sufficient experience to safely perform work” with minimal to no supervision.

Do I think Tommy Norris is competent? I certainly think he has knowledge, experience, and training, and I’m sure he understands the hazards involved in his work. At one point, he explains to Ms. Falcone that working on a rig is the most dangerous job in the world. He has seen workers die.

However, Tommy’s regulatory responsibilities include hazard identification and control, ensuring workers are trained and procedures are communicated, and demonstrating a commitment to safety in all actions and business decisions. If he is aware of these duties, he fails to apply them. Typically, I enjoy a show because it helps me escape from my professional reality. In the case of Landman, it’s so close to my professional reality that I can’t stand not knowing how it will end. So, I’ll be sticking with it. I’m sure the rest of Season 1 will deliver many scenarios to keep me analyzing through the night.