Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

A man either fell or jumped from a Washington State Ferry was rescued from the waters of Puget Sound on Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard said a crew on one of their escort boats saw someone jump off the Walla Walla and into the water. The boat investigated and pulled a person out of the water.

The man, in his 40s, was in the water for less than a minute and was taken to the Bell Harbor Marina to be evaluated by a Seattle Fire Department crew, the Coast Guard said. Crews there warmed him up and took him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The man did not suffer major injuries.

The munitions barge St. Elias, which ran aground five miles southwest of Anacortes, Wash., in Rosario Strait, Monday, was refloated, inspected and towed to Indian Island, Wash., Tuesday.

The hull of the 322-foot, dry-cargo barge was inspected by contracted divers from Global Marine & Diving, who located a 10-foot by 10-foot hole in the forward starboard hold. The hole did not affect the stability of the vessel and draft readings indicated no change to the barge's trim.

Continue reading "Munitions Barge St. Elias refloated" »

A Trinity Marine worker sustained serious injuries in a fall last month. The worker was about 15 feet from a barge. The fall occurred at a Trinity Marine facility in Ashland City in Tennessee. According to local fire personnel, the man was taken to hospital with injuries.

In November 2010, a Trinity Marine worker was killed in a maritime workplace-related incident when the worker was found lying on the ground bleeding from the head.  He was rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

Trinity Marine received at least five OSHA citations from the agency this year, all related to the November death.  It was the third workplace-related death  at Trinity Marine in thirteen years.  Those deaths included one in July 1997, and a fatal electrocution in June 2000.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team adopted the final report on the Jan. 23, 2010 collision in Port Arthur of the tanker Eagle Otome and towboat Dixie Vengeance that led to the largest Texas oil spill in more than two decades, according to federal transportation investigators.

At about 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the Eagle Otome, carrying 570,000 barrels of crude oil, collided with the outbound barge, tearing open one of the Eagle Otome's cargo tanks. According to the Coast Guard up to 450,000 gallons of oil spilled into the waterway.

The spill was the largest in Texas since 1990, when a Norwegian tanker spilled 4.3 million gallons about 60 miles off Galveston.

The NTSB concluded that pilot fatigue, improper communication and other distractions contributed to the Eagle Otome collision with the towboat Dixie Vengeance breached the tanker and spilled an estimated 462,000 gallons of oil into the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel.

Continue reading "Pilot Fatigue Contributed to Collision and Oil Spill" »

The Coast Guard is continuing its search for a crew member who fell from an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico this week.

The  31-year-old man was a crew member on the New Confidence.  At the time of the accident he was wearing no life jacket.

The US Coast Guard has announced a series of meetings to be held in Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana and Washington inviting public comments on the agency's proposed towing vessel inspection programs.

The agency has published notice inviting comments on the NPR. The first meeting will be held at Newport News, Virginia on October 18.  The second meeting will be held on October 24 in St. Louis, Missouri, the third meeting will be held on October 26 in Kenner, Louisiana and the last meeting will be held on November 16 in Seattle.

Continue reading "CG Invites Comment on Towboat Inspections" »

A passenger aboard the Holland America cruise ship Maasdam is dead and an investigation is underway to find out how died in the Northuberland Strait.

The Holland America Line statement issued Tuesday, says it's "thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this difficult time. "On October 4, 2011, shortly after arriving in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, a 75-year-old male guest aboard ms Maasdam was reported missing by his wife at approximately 8:12 a.m. local time," said the statement. "The ship immediately began a ship-wide search and did not locate the guest."

Continue reading "Cruise ship passenger dead" »

Mexican authorities are searching for a 39-year-old man who was seen jumping off a Carnival cruise ship near Cozumel.

Carnival officials said the man reportedly jumped off the Conquest ship Friday night. The ship returned to the location where the man was last seen and began searching for him. According to a statement from the cruise line, Mexican authorities searched the ship and then allowed it to continue on its scheduled trip.

The ship is expected to return to its home port of Galveston, Texas, on Sunday after a seven-day cruise.

An investigation into the 2009 helicopter crash in the North Sea blames crew error for the crash. The crash occurred when a helicopter carrying 18 people on board, including several offshore crew members, went down into the sea 300 m short of a BP oil and gas platform 125 miles east of Aberdeen.

There were no casualties, and all 18 people were rescued. Workers on the BP Oil and Gas platform witnessed the crash, and were able to begin rescue operations immediately to retrieve the crew from of the water.

Continue reading "Report Blames Crew for Crash" »

The companies involved in the 2007 oil spill when the 810-foot long container ship Cosco Busan crashed into the Bay Bridge have agreed to pay $44.4 million towards cleanup costs. The crash damaged the hull of the vessel and within hours, oil began leaking into the water. More than 53,000 gallons of oil spilled into the bay.

The accident was ultimately blamed on the misconduct of the pilot.  On the day of the accident, visibility conditions were poor, and crews on many of the vessels decided to stay docked until visibility improved. The pilot took the container ship out to sea on its way to South Korea.

Continue reading "$44 Million Spill Payment" »

Two crewmembers were killed, and more than 200 passengers had to be evacuated after a fire broke out on a Norwegian cruise vessel last week.

The fire broke out on the MS Nordly, and led to the evacuation of the 207 passengers on board the vessel, as well as 15 crew members. However, two crew members, aged 18 and 57, were killed.  Their bodies were found in the engine room. At least nine other crewmembers suffered injuries, including smoke inhalation and burns. Two persons were seriously injured.  At least two rescue personnel suffered smoke inhalation injuries, and had to receive treatment.

Continue reading "Two Crewmembers Killed" »

According to reports by the Royal Gazette, a passenger of the Carnival Cruise Lines' Fantasy ship has died while visiting during an island visit in Bermuda while snorkeling one mile offshore.

The 79-year-old tourist was confirmed to be a U.S. citizen, but his identity has not been disclosed. Police stated the man taken onshore and attended to by EMTs was part of a snorkeling tour group and had entered an unresponsive state and was pronounced dead at 12:55pm on Sunday. The Fantasy had departed from the Port of Charleston in South Carolina, which docked into Bermuda just a day before his death.

Continue reading "Cruise Ship Passenger Dies" »

A barge carrying a cargo of rocks for an ongoing remediation project struck the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel when it was being moved from one area to another early Tuesday morning, Sept 13, at about 3:00 a.m. No injuries were reported at the time of the incident.

According to bridge-tunnel Deputy Director Tom Anderson, the barge accident occurred when the barge struck a concrete piling on the southbound span between the two tunnels causing more severe damage than a similar incident that occurred in June.

Continue reading "Barge Strikes Bridge-Tunnel" »

A federal report into the Gulf of Mexico explosion last year blames a combination of shoddy safety practices by BP, a poor cementing job as well as bad decisions taken by BP, Transocean and Halliburton for the tragedy.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement report places most of the blame for the explosion on BP. The report mentions the responsibility shared by Transocean and Halliburton.

Continue reading "Poor BP Practices Blamed for Explosion" »

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the U.S. Coast Guard for lax oversight leading up to the 2009 San Diego patrol boat crash that killed 8-year-old Anthony DeWeese. The Federal board concluded that the Coast Guard boat pilot was going too fast -- as fast as 42 knots -- for the crowded conditions on San Diego Bay at night The NTSB discussed its findings at a meeting Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. A summary written report was released later in the day, and the full report will be published in coming weeks, officials said.