“Very thankful for everything they did for us. Always responsive, reassured us every step of the way and obtained a great result.”
Miguel Orellana
✦ Board-Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — State Bar of California ✦
Construction is California’s most dangerous industry. When you’re injured, experience matters.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law
Construction in Taft is not subdivision homes and strip malls. It is wellhead installations, refinery expansions, pipeline construction, tank farm builds, and infrastructure upgrades across the Midway-Sunset Oil Field. These projects involve heavy equipment, hazardous materials, extreme temperatures, and the kind of physical labor that produces severe injuries when something goes wrong.
Yazdchi Law P.C. represents construction workers injured on Taft job sites. Attorney Eman Yazdchi is a California State Bar Board-Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law — a credential that reflects the highest recognized level of competence in this practice area. For construction workers facing complex multi-employer injury claims, this specialization is critical.
Taft's construction industry is inseparable from oil production. Nearly every major construction project in the area connects to the extraction, processing, or transport of petroleum. This creates a specific set of hazards that Taft construction workers encounter regularly:
Building and maintaining oil field infrastructure involves crane operations, steel erection, concrete work, welding, and excavation — all standard construction hazards amplified by the oil field environment. Workers pour foundations for pump jacks, erect derricks, build tank batteries, and construct processing facilities in conditions that include hydrocarbon vapors, extreme heat, and remote locations far from emergency medical services.
Kern County has thousands of miles of pipeline carrying crude oil, natural gas, produced water, and steam. Pipeline construction workers in the Taft area face trenching cave-ins, welding flash burns, heavy pipe handling injuries, and exposure to residual hydrocarbons in existing lines. Under Cal/OSHA regulations, employers must implement specific safety protocols for trenching and excavation — failures create both liability and evidence for your case.
Construction and maintenance shutdowns (turnarounds) at processing facilities near Taft bring in hundreds of temporary workers for intensive projects. The compressed timelines, unfamiliar crews, and complex industrial environment produce elevated injury rates. Workers face chemical exposure, falls from height, confined space hazards, and burn injuries.
This is where construction injury cases in Taft get genuinely complex — and where having a board-certified specialist matters most.
Workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against your direct employer (LC §3601). But on a Taft oil field construction site, your direct employer is often just one of many companies on site. The site owner, the general contractor, equipment rental companies, and other subcontractors may all bear responsibility for unsafe conditions that caused your injury.
Third-party claims allow you to pursue negligence damages — including pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and punitive damages — that workers' comp does not provide. On a major oil field construction project, identifying all potentially liable third parties can multiply your total recovery.
Crane collapse on a tank farm project. A mobile crane overturns while setting a large oil storage tank on a site south of Taft. The crane operator suffers crush injuries to his legs. Investigation reveals the ground was not properly compacted for the crane's load, and the lift plan was inadequate. The crane operator's workers' comp claim covers medical care and disability benefits. A third-party claim against the site owner and general contractor pursues additional damages.
Trench collapse during pipeline installation. A laborer is buried in a trench collapse while a crew installs a new pipeline segment in the Midway-Sunset field. He suffers pelvic fractures and internal injuries. Cal/OSHA regulations required trench shoring that was not in place. The workers' comp claim provides immediate benefits, while a third-party suit against the general contractor and shoring subcontractor adds substantial compensation.
Welder burned at a refinery turnaround. A contract welder working a turnaround at a Taft-area processing facility is burned when welding sparks ignite residual vapors in a line that was supposed to be purged. The facility owner failed to properly isolate and purge the system. This supports a workers' comp claim against the welding contractor and a third-party negligence claim against the facility owner.
Scaffold fall at a pump station upgrade. An ironworker falls 20 feet when a scaffold plank fails during a pump station construction project. The scaffold was erected by a different subcontractor. Workers' comp covers the ironworker's injuries through his own employer, while a third-party claim against the scaffold subcontractor targets the negligent assembly.
Attorney Eman Yazdchi handles construction injury cases at the Bakersfield WCAB and in civil courts throughout Kern County. His board certification in workers' compensation law provides the foundation for navigating the dual-track approach that many Taft construction cases require — pursuing workers' comp benefits while simultaneously identifying and litigating third-party claims.
Yazdchi Law offers:
Injured at work in Taft? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →Construction injuries on Taft oil field sites produce some of the most severe and most complex workers' comp cases in Kern County. Evidence on construction sites disappears fast — scaffolding gets dismantled, equipment gets moved, and temporary workers scatter to their next job. Contact Yazdchi Law P.C. immediately for a free consultation. Board-certified specialist Eman Yazdchi will evaluate your case and fight for everything you are owed. Call today.
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