Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

The morning of May 8, Felix Morales, of California, was loading a seine net onto M/V KAYLOR T in Seward, Alaska, when the Icicle Seafoods boom truck he was operating tipped over. Apparently, the boom overextended, the truck flipped sideways, and the crane boom pierced the deck of KAYLOR T. Mr. Morales fell from the crane cab to the deck of KAYLOR T, about 23 feet. He died of head injury.

Local fire departments and other workers stabilized the overturned boom truck before it could fall onto KAYLOR T as she lowered with the ebb tide.

Mr. Morales, 52, of California, was an experienced crane operator and had been traveling annually from California to Seward for 16 years to work. He was well known in the Seward fishing community. OSHA is investigating this industrial accident.

A settlement by South Harmony Shipping of Panama, owners of the oil tanker the Dubai Star, was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on Tuesday, May 9, by the district attorneys of San Francisco and Alameda County in Northern California.

San Francisco District Attorney, George Gascón, told the media that the owners of the Dubai Star oil tanker had to pay $1.96 million for a 2009 oil spill in the San Francisco Bay that impacted more than 200 acres and killed some 100 seabirds.

About 75 percent of that cash, which will be divided among San Francisco, Oakland, and the California Department of Fish and Game, covers the cost of the damages, including restoring wildlife habitat and recreation areas. The rest of the sum will pay off civil penalties.

Continue reading "Tanker Owners to Pay $2 Million" »

Three crewmembers of a Seattle-based fishing trawler were medevaced after being exposed to an ammonia leak while fishing in Alaskan waters Thursday.

According to the Coast Guard report, personnel from Coast Sector Anchorage received a report at appoximately 12:38 p.m. on Thurday of an ammonia leak aboard the 218-foot F/V Alaska Juris, resulting in exposure to three crewmembers.

The Coast Guard responded, sending two helicopters, an airplane and a cutter to the location of the vessel, which at the time was about 80 miles north of Cold Bay in the Bearing Sea.  Once on scene, one of the helicopters medevaced the three crewman and took them to Anchorage for medical attention. The men were later reported to be in good condition.

A total of 49 people were aboard the vessel at the time of the leak. The incident is under investigation.

Ride the Ducks, which operates the touring vehicles, and K-Sea Transportation Partners, which owned the tug that pushed a 250-foot barge into the duck boat in July 2010, also will pay $2 million to be split among the 18 duck boat passengers who survived, the Inquirer reports.

The two victims who died in the 2010 Philadelphia duck boat crash on the Delaware River were 20-year old Szabolcs Prem and 16-year old Dora Schwendtner. Both drowned when they, along with more than three dozen fellow passengers, were thrown into the river's icy waters.

The Inquirer said their parents attended the first two days of the trial, which started Monday, but returned to Hungary on Wednesday and were not available for comment.

Coast Guard crews from Corpus Christi were called to the Gulf Intracoastal near Rockport, TX on Monday morning to medevac an injured crewman aboard the U.S. owned and operated tugboat, Billy Burkett. 

The Coast Guard they received the report at about 9 a.m. that at 20-year old male had been injured and required immediate medical assistance about five miles from Rockport.  The Coast Guard arrived on scene about an hour later and hoisted the man aboard a Dolphin rescue helicopter and transported him to Columbia Memorial Hospital for medical care.

"We were able to get the rescue swimmer on scene quickly, and he recommended airlifting the man," said Lt. Garret Barker, a Dolphin pilot at Air Station Corpus Christi. "I am glad we were able to help the injured crewmember today."

The crew of F/V ASHLYNE called the Coast Guard for help early the morning of April 30, reporting that ASHLYNE had begun listing and losing stability as they headed for port, and later reporting that the listing was worsening, as the original listing had caused their 70,000 pound catch of fish to shift in the fish hold. ASHLYNE was losing stability and in danger of capsizing.

The Coast Guard successfully escorted ASHLYNE from about two miles south of the Columbia River mouth to port at Ilwaco, WA, in swells of eight to twelve feet while pumps on board kept the vessel from flooding. ASHLYNE will be kept in port for a Coast Guard inspection to determine the cause of the listing and flooding and to ensure that required repairs are made.

The Rowan EXL-1, a mobile offshore drilling unit, has reportedly been badly damaged after being struck by a tanker that had apparently lost propulsion near Port Aransas.  

According to the U.S.C.G initial statement, watchstanders at Sector Corpus Christi received a report at 7:25 a.m., that the Rowan EXL-1 and the 750-foot tanker FR8 Pride had collided in the Aransas Channel, near buoy 3.

Continue reading "Oil Rig Damaged by Tanker" »

The Cruise Lines International Association has announced that new standards will be mandated on cruise ships to avoid future disasters like the Costa Concordia cruise ship accident. New rules will require that cruise ships are equipped with additional life vests for adults and also ensure that there are more life jackets onboard then there are actual passengers. These jackets must also be readily available in public locations as opposed to located in individual cabins.

Passage planning procedures were also the subject of revision, and ships will be required to submit a detailed report of the ship's journey from departure to arrival. The voyage must be approved by the master and explained to the bridge team members by a designated officer.

Continue reading "New Safety Procedures for Cruise Ships" »

The 37-foot sailboat Aegean, was found destroyed Saturday morning, during the Newport Beach to Ensenada race. It is believed the boat must have collided with another much larger vessel.

The team aboard the boat comprised veteran sailors. The skipper of the boat, presumed dead, has not been found at this time. Three bodies have been found among the debris--Joseph Lester Stewart of Bradenton, FL, William Reed Johnson, Jr. of Torrance, and Kevin Rudolph of Manhattan Beach. A coast guard investigation is under way.

These deaths are the first in the race's 65 year history. The deaths are the second yachting disaster this spring. On April 14, five fatalities occurred in a racing accident off the coast of San Francisco.

The Coast Guard over the weekend suspended its search for the master of a tugboat who authorities believe fell overboard from his vessel on Wednesday off the coast of Newport, R.I.

Brendan O'Leary, 48, was last seen around 1:30 p.m. by the crew of the New York-based 91-foot tugboat Steven-Scott, and was reported missing about an hour later. At the time of the incident, the tugboat was about nine miles south of the coast of Newport, R.I. Winds were blowing to 25 mph with waves to 6 feet when the incident occurred.

"We no longer have planes or boats dedicated to the search," said Petty Officer Connie Terrell. The Coast Guard said O'Leary may not have been wearing a life jacket when he fell overboard.

On Saturday, April 21, 70-foot Taiwanese F/V HSIN MAN CHUN caught fire, the ten-person crew abandoned ship. The Coast Guard at Guam received an EPIRB signal from HSIN MAN CHUN at around 4:30 p.m., as well as word from a rescue center in Taipei that HSIN MAN CHUN's sister ship had radioed to them that HSIN MAN CHUN was on fire and that her crew were abandoning ship.

As HSIN MAN CHUN was about 700 miles west of Guam, it was a U.S. Navy P-3 aircraft out of Kadena Air Base in Japan and a 950-foot bulk carrier in the area that came to the rescue. The P-3 crew located HSIN MAN CHUN and noted that eight crew were in a life raft while two crew were still on the bridge. The P-3 crew dropped two life rafts and notified the crew of M/V SEMIRIO, which was forty miles away. Once at the scene, SEMIRIO launched a small boat and rescued all ten HSIN MAN CHUN crew members.

Cruise Yacht SAFARI SPIRIT, operated out of Juneau, AK, by American Safari Cruises, had been preparing for the upcoming tourist season at Fishermen's Terminal, Seattle. She is listed as a 91-foot luxury cruise yacht with a 12-passenger and 6-crew capacity, and was apparently scheduled to sail May 11. SAFARI SPIRIT is now a total loss.

According to reports, at about 1:00 this morning, American Safari CEO Dan Blanchard awoke in the stateroom of SAFARI SPIRIT to "popping noises." He quickly alerted the ship engineer/mate, who was also on board, and they both escaped harm by shimmying down a mooring line. No one else was aboard. The Coast Guard, Seattle Fire Department, and Harbor Patrol all responded quickly, but SAFARI SPIRIT was enveloped in flame by the time firefighters arrived, and the fire continued to burn.

Continue reading "SAFARI SPIRIT Burns, complete loss" »

A loss of propulsion control caused by a faulty valve and lack of alarm to alert crewmembers caused the 2010 Staten Island Ferry collision with the ferry terminal, according to findings from the NTSB investigation into the incident.  

The NTSB says that on May 8, 2010, the 310-foot-long passenger ferry Andrew J. Barberi, one of two ferry boats operated as part of the world famous Staten Island Ferry, lost propulsion control to one its two cycloidal propellers as the vessel approached St. George terminal in Staten Island, New York, causing the ferry to crash into the dock.  The crash resulted in three passengers suffering serious injuries and more than 40 passengers and crew reported with minor injuries.

Continue reading "Staten Island Ferry Crash" »

HOUSTON, TX. -- The Justice Department announced Tuesday, April 24, that a former BP engineer has been arrested on two counts of obstruction of justice for destroying evidence in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.

The former BP engineer, 50-year old Kurt Mix from Katy, Texas, is the first person to be criminally charged by the DOJ. Mix is accused of deleting a string of 200 text messages with a BP supervisor in October 2010 that involved internal BP information about how efforts to cap the Macondo well were failing.

Having an accurate flow-rate estimate was needed to determine how much in civil and criminal penalties BP and the other companies drilling the Macondo well face under the Clean Water Act.

Mix will make an initial appearance in federal court in Houston on Tuesday afternoon. If Mix is convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

A small fire aboard the Allure of the Seas cruise ship has been extinguished with no reported injuries. Royal Caribbean International spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the engine fire occurred about 7:45 p.m. Friday.
The gargantuan cruise ship was sailing from St. Maarten to Port Everglades when the fire broke out. Martinez said the ship's high fog extinguishing system was activated the fire was quickly contained and extinguished.

No passengers or crew were injured, and the ship never lost power. It is scheduled to return to Fort Lauderdale today.