Maritime Injury Lawyer Blog

BP announced on Wednesday, April 18, that they have reached a class-action settlement with lawyers who represent businesses and individuals who made claims after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The announcement came two days before the two year anniversary of the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster where 11 oil rig workers lost their lives.

A federal judge has to approve the settlement, but BP officials estimate that they will be paying out about $7.8 billion in compensation. Roughly $2.3 billion of that will go to the seafood industry. The money will come from the $20 billion trust fund set up to help revive the area.

"This settlement demonstrates BP's continued progress in resolving significant issues related to the Deepwater Horizon accident," said BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley. "BP made a commitment to help economic and environmental restoration efforts in the Gulf Coast, and this settlement provides the framework for us to continue delivering on that promise, offering those affected full and fair compensation, without waiting for the outcome of a lengthy trial process."

"The people and businesses of the Gulf Coast stand to reap great benefits from these settlements," said plaintiffs counsels, James P. Roy and Stephen J. Herman. "We have held BP fully accountable for the Deepwater Horizon tragedy less than two years after the spill. Through extensive arms-length, good-faith negotiations, hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents and businesses will be made whole."

BP has asked a court to delay a liability trial until it decides whether to grant final approval to the agreements.

Crew from F/V ENTERPRISE, a 75-foot clam boat, notified Coast Guard that Joe Montgomery, 47, had been hit in the head by a dislodged pipe. ENTERPRISE was about six miles offshore at the time. Mr. Montgomery's condition was such that he could not be transferred by the motor life boat deployed by the Coast Guard, so the Coast Guard escorted ENTERPRISE to Point Pleasant Beach, where emergency medical crews awaited to transfer the injured man for further care.

This week, April 16 - 20, at Camp Rilea in Warrenton, Oregon, the Coast Guard is holding a public hearing as it continues its formal investigation of how LADY CECELIA and the four men aboard may have disappeared.

F/V LADY CECELIA and her crew of three and a NOAA fisheries observer disappeared at sea on March 10, apparently while returning to port with a full load of catch, leaving behind no more than a debris field and an intact, empty life raft. Missing are Dave Nichols and Jason Bjaranson of Warrenton, OR, Luke Jensen of Ilwaco, WA, and Chris Langel of Kaukauna, WI.

At around 5:30 a.m. on March 30, at the Squalicum Harbor marina in Bellingham, a number of 9-1-1 calls reported a fire. One of the calls was made by Sterling Taylor, who is one of the two missing people who are said to have lived aboard their 42-foot power boat, BREAKWIND, which sunk in the marina fire. The other missing person is her husband, Jim Langei. In her 9-1-1 call, Ms. Taylor apparently expressed that they were trapped on board. By the time firefighters reached the dock, their boat was enveloped in flame.
The cause of the two-alarm fire is, as yet, unknown. It's reported that ten boats were burned. The firefighters had no fireboat to aid them, as the City of Bellingham decommissioned their old fireboat last year. The corrugated metal marina roof in that area collapsed onto the burning boats while crews fought the fire.

Continue reading "Squalicum Marina Fire - Two dead" »

On April 14, the eight member crew of 38-foot S/V LOW SPEED CHASE was participating in the Full Crew Farallones Race around the Farallon Islands, an island group located about 27 miles west of Golden Gate, CA. At around 3:00 that afternoon, the Coast Guard received an EPIRB signal registered to LOW SPEED CHASE, and a mayday call regarding the sailboat.

Continue reading "Three Rescued, One Deceased, Four Missing" »

he crew F/V ELAINE has notified the Coast Guard that one of their crew had gone overboard and was missing. A full-scale search was launched by air, sea, and beach by Coast Guard, local Monterey County fire departments, and California State Parks, but so far the man has not been found. The crew of ELAINE apparently were not certain exactly where their mate had gone overboard, so the search has extended roughly nine miles off the coast of Moss Landing, which is approximately fifty miles south of San Francisco, and between the Pajaro and Salinas Rivers. The search continues this afternoon, but is no longer full-scale.

Continue reading "Fisherman Lost Overboard" »

Passengers aboard the Silver Shadow luxury cruise liner after it recently collided with a container ship five miles off the Vietnamese coast who observed the collision and its aftermath felt that owner Silversea Cruises' reference to the collision as a "minor incident" of "contact between the Silver Shadow and a local commercial vessel" was an understatement.

In dense fog the Vietnamese container ship came out of nowhere and was suddenly broadside to the cruise ship's bow, where it was struck within a matter of seconds. The container ship rolled over but did not capsize, and actually righted itself as it was moved by the passing cruise liner.

Continue reading "Cruise Ship Collision" »

A married couple that survived the January 13 Costa Concordia shipwreck was recently interviewed during a congressional hearing. Members of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation listened intently to the first-hand account offered by Divya Sharma and her husband Sameer about the onboard chaos that surrounded the event that fateful night.

Mrs. Sharma reported that at approximately 9:15 PM that evening, as their dinner was being served, they experienced violent shaking, loud noises, broken china, and lost lights as the ship listed to port. Although announcements were made stating that "Everything is under control, it seems to be a generator failure", the Sharmas noticed that there were crew members outside of the dining room with life jackets on.

Continue reading "Costa Concordia Survivors" »

The tugboat Altro Donna sank after alliding with a piling near Commodore Dock in Marrero, Louisiana with three crewmembers onboard.  

According to the U.S. Coast Guard report, at approximately 12:10 a.m Friday a call came in that Altro Donna collided with a piling and sank while transiting downbound pushing eight empty red-flag barges. The Altro Donna reportedly had an estimated 11,500 gallons of diesel fuel and 52 gallons of lube oil. All three crewmembers disembarked safely before the vessel sank.

No injuries were reported and the river remained open following the incident.

The body of a barge worker who fell into the Mississippi River while working on a bridge-building project on Wednesday, March 28, was recovered by search teams the following day. According to East St. Louis Police Chief, Michael Floore, divers found the body of 35-year-old Andy Gammon of Park Hills, Mo. on Thursday, March 29. East Saint Louis is located in St. Clair County, Illinois in the southwestern part of the state, about 93 miles southwest of Springfield and 42 miles northwest of Evansville.

The accident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. when the four-wheeled aerial lift Gammon was in toppled into the river from a barge near East St. Louis. Police, coast guard and rescue crews searched the Mississippi north of downtown for more than five hours on Wednesday.

Continue reading "Barge Worker Falls to His Death" »

The Congress and the President passed a new law recently, which gives the USCG the authority to replace aging ships and aircraft with modern craft, improve USCG stations and housing, train personnel, and strengthens maritime security.

Specific to the commercial fishing industry, the Act provides the USCG more authority to amend and clarify, regulate, and enforce safety standards. Vessel and equipment standards now are to be determined based on where the vessel operates, not on where it's registered. The goal of these uniform standards is to ensure fairness and to simplify to application of regulations. The emphasis here is on safety, both to prevent accidents and to buy survival time while awaiting rescue.

Search crews under the direction of the Italian Civil Protection agency discovered five more bodies today trapped in the water below the capsized Costa Concordia. The cruise ship sank after it was gashed by a reef on January 13, just offshore this small island.

No details are available yet about the five victims that were spotted today in spaces between the hull and the seabed as divers were setting up a robot to help them search the inaccessible parts of the wrecked ship. Officials estimate that it will be several days before the robotic device will be able to access and remove the trapped victims.

Continue reading "Costa Concordia More Bodies Found" »

An 8-year-old was killed Friday at a family reunion in Putnam County. The boat she was in was driven under a dock while she was sitting in a seat in the front of the boat. Around 6 p.m., the driver attempted to maneuver onto a boat lift and missed, on a second approach the 23-foot bow rider was driven under the dock. Olivia Wade, of Springdale, PA, sitting in the front seat hit the dock. She was taken to Putnam Community Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

The sunken CHEVELLE still has not been located, but it's been reported that navigational surveys show that the channel appears free of obstructions. The Coast Guard opened the Yaquina Bar as of March 18, advising mariners to use extreme caution as they pass through the area.

CHEVELLE broke up in the heavy seas and sank Sunday night, according to a Coast Guard update. No new signs of pollution have been reported, other than the pollution that had been noted Sunday morning. The owner of CHEVELLE has lined up a salvage master to locate and remove the boat from the channel area. In the meantime, the Coast Guard has closed the Yaquina Bar until authorities and contractors determine what navigation hazard the sunken vessel poses.