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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Working at sea, even when close to shore, can present serious risks. One ever-present hazard is the water itself. If a crewmember falls overboard or a vessel capsizes or sinks, survival will depend on more than one’s ability to swim or tread water. Even an experienced swimmer can quickly lose muscle control in cool water, affecting their ability to stay afloat or pull themselves back on board. ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Arnold & Itkin is currently working to help a deckhand injured while working on a towboat on the Mississippi River. Our client collapsed when he was told to lift two heavy spools of wire without proper assistance. His employer thought our client’s incident and suffering was funny, but he now has two herniated discs. This man relied on his body to take care of himself and his family, but now his ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
When it comes to the dangers of offshore work, a few industries come to mind. Many people refer to the risks faced by offshore oil rig workers while others immediately think of the treacherous seas that fishermen face. However, there is one dangerous job that makes the maritime industry functional, and that isn’t talked about as frequently as others: working on a tugboat. Tugboats are the ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
The tugboat accident lawyers at Arnold & Itkin filed a lawsuit against Ascend Performance and IntraTug as a result of serious back injuries sustained to their client. While working as a lead deckman for IntraTug, he was instructed to perform unsafe work by his captain. While performing this work, he had to use a dock that was owned and maintained by Ascend Performance. Upon stepping on the dock, ...
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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
Arnold & Itkin is currently representing a man who lives in Alpha, Florida. He sustained injuries while working on a tugboat in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Our client slipped and fell while on the vessel, causing severe injuries to his knee. The accident occurred because his employer failed to maintain safe working conditions on the boat. Our client’s employers had a responsibility to ensure that ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
Arnold & Itkin filed a suit on behalf of four men who were injured in Sunshine, Louisiana when a towboat crashed into a dock where the men were working. As a result, the men sustained serious injuries to their neck, back, and other parts of their bodies. Their injuries will require extensive medical bills and will have lasting repercussions. The towboat company has the responsibility to ensure ...
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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
Arnold & Itkin is representing a young man who sustained serious injuries to his back while working on a tugboat in the Mississippi River. The man fell while working on board and landed on his back. The defendants failed to provide our client with a safe working environment and failed to train other employees, which exposed the young man to significant harm. It is the employer’s responsibility to ...
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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
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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As one of the most dangerous jobs in America, offshore employment deserves the fullest protection and compensation available under the law. Arnold & Itkin is honored to be standing beside our newest client—a man who was injured while working aboard a tugboat for T&D Towing. Our client’s case was filed against his employer. Specifically, our client was asked to lift heavy nylon ropes that were far ...
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A tugboat capsized early Tuesday morning as it made its way along the San Jacinto River, which was rain-swollen due to the heavy down pour in the area. Of the five crewmembers on board the Ricky J Leboeuf, four were successfully rescued by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Marine Unit while the tugboat sank into the river. The fifth crewmember remained unaccounted for following the ...
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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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Arnold & Itkin Jones Act lawyers Jason Itkin, Cory Itkin, and Noah Wexler recently filed suit on behalf of a deckhand who suffered serious neck, back, and shoulder injuries in a line handling incident while working on a tug boat in foreign waters. The seaman is from Jacksonville, Florida, but at the time of the tug boat accident, he was working for Orion Marine off the coast of the Dominican ...
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Being put out of commission from a job can be extremely challenging. An individual may be left with few employment options and may find themselves wondering where to turn next. In a recent case that put a Vidor, Texas tankerman through this exact scenario, Arnold & Itkin stepped in to provide much needed legal support. Jason Itkin, Cory Itkin, and Noah Wexler filed a Jones Act lawsuit on behalf of ...
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Posted By Arnold & Itkin LLP
On Saturday, the Texas City dike was forced to close after an oil-leak was detected from a barge off the coast. The area within the levee, which runs approximately five miles, was evacuated as a precaution and to allow for cleanup operations. The spill was the result of a collision between the barge and a 585-foot-long bulk carrier ship. The barge was carrying more than 920,000 gallons at the time ...
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