Page 21: of Marine News Magazine (December 2018)

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miles of visibility. his USCG license, with an additional the spud’s height in the raised position

The towboat passed under the nine (9) month probationary period and not requesting the railroad bridge bridge without incident but, as the following the completion of his 90- to be raised.

? exi? oat being towed was proceed- day suspension. As today’s maritime media continues ing underneath the bridge, the bridge After debating the merits of con- to focus on bridge allision incidents, the spuds in the fully upright posi- testing the terms of the Settlement particularly their negative consequenc- tion allided with the lower steel beam Agreement being offered, both the es to the free movement of people and of the bridge resulting in damage to pilot and his attorney agreed that, goods, river pilots should take all pru- the spuds. given the wording of the Oregon Rule dent action to satisfy the old axiom

While the towboat pilot was assess- and the absence of any valid mitigat- when it comes to bridge clearances … ing damage to the barge and attend- ing circumstance, the most prudent, better to be safe than sorry.

ing to other on board safety issues, the albeit painful, decision was to accept bridge operator immediately reported the Coast Guard offer and surrender

Randy O’Neill is Senior Vice the incident to the Coast Guard be- his license.

President with Lancer Insurance fore contacting the pilot to con? rm The one silver lining was that the

Company and has been Manager that his tow had indeed struck the pilot had opted for income protection of its MOPS Marine License

Insurance division since 1984. bridge. The pilot acknowledged the when purchasing his license insurance

Over the past 29 years, Mr. O’Neill allision and reported that the lower policy so he received his insured wages has spoken and written on many two bolts of the forward spud were for the duration of his three-month occasions on the importance of visibly bent over but still in the well, suspension. While softening the eco-

USCG license protection. He is a and the aft spud well’s upper bolts nomic impact, no amount of money regular contributor to MarineNews were broken causing the aft spud and could compensate the damage to his magazine. He can reached at: well to bend backwards. He further professional reputation caused by two [email protected] reported no damage to his vessel or, lapses in judgment … not verifying to the best of his knowledge, the rail- road bridge.

The pilot then promptly reported the incident to his license insurer and was assigned a local maritime attorney to prep him for his initial ‘informal’ onsite USCG interview, preparation of the required Maritime

Casualty Report (2692) and, eventu- ally, accompanying him to his formal

USCG interview.

OT MUCH OOM TO ANEUVER

N R M

Unfortunately, the formal USCG interview which took place a few days later was a short meeting as the pilot was promptly charged with negligence for both failing to properly check and verify the height/draft of the barge’s spuds and failing to request the bridge operator to raise the crossing on his approach. He was then offered a “Settlement Agreement’ stipulating his acceptance of an outright three (3) month suspension and surrender of www.marinelink.com MN 21

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