While appearing before a U.S. Senate subcommittee last week, BP’s top safety official wilted beneath questions about the company’s claims to “a culture of safety” in the face of evidence of repeated accidents and deaths linked to its facilities and operations. Steven Flynn is Vice President, Health, Safety, Security, and Environment for BP. He testified before the Senate subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety on July 22.

Subcommittee chair, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) grew increasingly frustrated as she questioned Flynn about the company’s safety record. She appeared incredulous at Flynn’s claim that BP fostered a “culture of safety” and that “safety is our top priority.” She pointed out that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, in which the deepwater drilling platform exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and sank two days later sparking the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history as it poured oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was far from the company’s first tragic incident.

Murray read out a laundry list of BP safety failures, including a 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery, which resulted in 15 deaths, as well as additional worker deaths at that same facility since; and “countless reports” of unsafe practices at BP pipelines in Alaska. She also pointed out that BP was handed one of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines in history, in 2009, again for violations at the Texas City plant. She also cited earlier testimony provided by people who worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig before it sank, in which they told the Senate panel that a number of safety concerns were ignored when presented to BP officials. These included disconnected alarms and bypassing safety alerts.

“Do such reports like that depict a culture of safety that you’re trying to establish?” she demanded of Flynn.

The executive repeatedly bypassed the question, saying only that the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion has not yet been established. He said that BP is “concerned” by such reports.

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