6 Recent Groundings & Why They Happened It's been nearly two years since the historic grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal, which halted commercial traffic for a week. This disrupted billions of dollars of trade and grabbed worldwide attention. The accident would later be blamed on trying to navigate the ship with just two pilots on the bridge and no tow vessels fore or aft of the ...
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According to Rule 5 of the Amalgamated International & U.S. Inland Navigation Rules, “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.” Keeping a proper lookout is one of the most basic rules of ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Arnold & Itkin recently filed suit on behalf of a towboat deckhand who was injured while making tow on the Mississippi River. His employer had him carrying heavy spools across barges that lacked step downs and nonskid, and our client slipped with a 100-pound spool over his shoulder, severely injuring his back. As we see too often, our client’s bosses discouraged him from seeking medical treatment ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
A tugboat on the Mississippi River collided with the Luling Bridge in St. Charles Parish during the early hours of Sunday morning. The vessel was leading a train of grain barges when it crashed into the bridge, causing two of the barges to collide. So far, officials have said that the incident has not caused any injuries. About the Luling Bridge Tugboat Crash According to officials, the incident ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Last Wednesday, an accident in the Caspian Sea injured 14 employees of Italian company Saipem; 7 of them were put into intensive care. All the survivors were transferred to hospitals in Turkey, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom. We've now learned that one week after the accident, one of the workers has succumbed to his injuries at the hospital in France. While the cause of the accident hasn't ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
On Friday afternoon, two barges being pushed by a tugboat named Voyager collided with a tanker named Genesis River. One of the barges capsized, and the other was hit so hard that it was nearly sliced in half. Both barges were carrying 25,000 barrels of reformate, an ingredient used in producing high-octane gasoline. Recovery crews are still working to remove the remaining reformate from the ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
The Houston Ship Channel is closed from Light 61 to Light 75 after a crash between a barge and another vessel around 3:30 PM on Friday. Two barges were on the inbound channel and the tanker was outbound when they collided. As a result of the collision, one of the barges has capsized and the other has a large hole in it. According to authorities, the barge is now leaking reformate into the channel, ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Since October of 2017, Arnold & Itkin has closely followed the events surrounding the investigation of a Bouchard Transportation Co.'s Barge No. 255, which exploded and erupted into a violent fire just off the coast of Port Aransas, Texas. Our barge explosion attorneys are representing the family of Zachariah Jackson, one of the two workers killed during the incident. Officials never located ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
On March 24, 1989, we saw one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was so significant that it remained the worst American oil spill until the Deepwater Horizon exploded in April of 2010. The accident happened when the supertanker Exxon Valdez collided with the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Over 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled from ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Arnold & Itkin’s offshore wrongful death attorneys recently filed a case on behalf of the family of a young man who lost his life while performing tow work in the Baton Rouge area. The worker was on a barge when it collided with another vessel, causing him to fall into the water and drown. His captain had a duty to operate the barge safely. To make matters worse, the employer let down the young ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Recently, our blog comprehensively covered Bouchard Transportation's safety record —their history of ignoring serious vapor leaks, their culture of secrecy, and their high turnover rate that kept problems from being solved conclusively. All of these problems contributed to the barge explosion last October that killed two men. Our firm is representing the family of one of the men who died that ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Over the last two weeks, we posted two blogs regarding a barge that exploded near Port Aransas, taking the lives of two men. In the first blog, we discussed the beginning of the Coast Guard’s hearing regarding the incident, and then we explored the heartbreaking eyewitness testimony that emerged during the trial’s first week. This week, our law firm assisted the family of Jackson as we continued ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
On October 20, ship engineer Timothy Lerette and a co-worker sailed into the dark waters of the Gulf to find his crewmates. He saw a lifejacket floating a short distance from the Bouchard-owned oil barge they worked on. He knew who it was: Du'jour Vanterpool, 26, one of two crewmembers working on the deck that night. He was dead. "We tried to retrieve him but he slipped out of his life jacket and ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Last October, a fatal barge explosion occurred off the Port Aransas coast, killing two men. While one man’s body was found several days after the tragic incident, the second still has not be found. On November 2, our law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of the presumed-dead sailor’s family. In that suit, we claimed that the company for which the decedent worked (Bouchard Transportation Company) had ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Early Friday, a fuel barge exploded off the Port Aransas coast, leaving two missing. The explosion occurred around 4:30 a.m. while the barge was being pulled by a tug, according to a mayday message to Coast Guard watchstanders by the tug’s captain. Six crew members were reportedly pulled to safety. Crew Goes Missing After the Fire In the aftermath of the explosion, it was discovered that two of ...
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Maritime accidents involving tanker collisions are some of the most dangerous accidents that can occur at sea. While it is not uncommon for vessels to collide, the collisions can lead to catastrophic injuries and even death. With increased vessel speed, the increased ability to carry larger loads of greater tonnage, and increased maritime traffic, the risk of vessel collision accidents has also ...
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The offshore and maritime industries are full of unique pieces of equipment, workstations, and job titles. Understanding these aspects can help workers and their loved ones better understand their positions. For example, a spud barge is a type of barge that is moored by using through-deck pilings or steel shafts, which are commonly referred to as spuds (hence the name). There are number types of ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
At approximately 1:20 a.m. on Monday, two eastbound Kirby Inland Marine barges and two westbound Enterprise Marine Services barges collided at mile marker 349 near Bolivar Peninsula in Texas. The two Kirby barges had been being pushed by the tug Capt. Shorty C; the other barges were being pushed by the tug Jackie. According to a U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer, the accident occurred after one of ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Attorneys Kurt Arnold, Kyle Findley, and another attorney from Arnold & Itkin have filed suit on behalf of an injured oil barge employee who sustained injuries after falling down a stair well in 2012. The barge worker was unaware at the time that the stairs were heavily coated with oil, which lead to his slip and fall accident. As a result of this incident, lawyers at Arnold & Itkin have filed a ...
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