Illinois Captain Sentenced to Six Months in Prison for 2005 Barge Explosion

By Mary Wisniewski

CHICAGO, June 26 (Reuters) – An Illinois man who was captain of a petroleum barge that exploded in a Chicago canal in 2005, killing a crew member, was sentenced to 6 months in jail on Friday, prosecutors mentioned.

Dennis Egan, 36, of Topeka in central Illinois, and the barge proprietor, Egan Marine Corp. of Lemont, had been every convicted in June 2014 of negligent manslaughter of a seaman and negligently discharging oil right into a waterway, in accordance with a press release from prosecutors.

The Chicago suburban firm was ordered to pay $5.3 million in restitution to the National Pollution Funds Center for the clean-up.

On January 19, 2005, a barge being pushed by the tow boat “Lisa E” on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was carrying about 600,000 gallons of clarified slurry oil from an ExxonMobil refinery to the Ameropan Oil facility on town’s south facet.

The barge exploded after a crewman, Alexander Oliva, 29, used a propane torch to warmth the barge’s cargo pump and ignited oil vapors. The use of an open flame on a loaded petroleum barge violates U.S. Coast Guard rules and protected business apply, prosecutors mentioned.

The ensuing explosion discharged 1000’s of gallons of oil into the canal. Oliva’s physique was recovered weeks later, prosecutors mentioned.

Total cleanup and different prices from the spill had been greater than $12 million, prosecutors mentioned.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel concluded that Egan and Egan Marine permitted the usage of open flames by crew members, although it was a security violation.

“The ultimate tragedy of their crimes is that Alex Oliva would not have lost his life if the defendants valued basic safety higher than expediency,” mentioned U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, in a press release.

Negligent manslaughter of a seaman is a reasonably uncommon cost, and an explosion of this sort is “exceedingly rare,” mentioned Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman. Explosions had been extra frequent within the time of steamships.

A sentencing listening to on restitution for Oliva’s household from Dennis Egan and Egan Marine might be held subsequent week, mentioned Chapman. Prosecutors have mentioned the fee could possibly be as much as $1.5 million.

Dennis Egan is contemplating an attraction, Walters mentioned. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Lisa Lambert)