The National Transportation Safety Board has issued its report on a December 23, 2021, incident through which a barge tow struck a freeway bridge. Though the bridge incurred $2 million in harm, the towboat pilot by no means reported the strike to authorities.
The accident occurred within the early morning hours. The 1961-built towing vessel Miss Mollye D, operated by Deloach Marine Services, was pushing six hopper barges on the Intracoastal Waterway to New Orleans when the pilot misplaced management of the tow. While navigating the channel, the 676 foot lengthy tow, started to swing to port. When the pilot realized the tow was not positioned effectively, he put the engines in reverse. The tow then struck the bridge, which ran parallel to the waterway.
The pilot informed investigators he initially didn’t see the bridge, nor did he know the tow struck the bridge.
When the tow struck the bridge, water, electrical and fuel traces alongside the bridge ruptured, triggering alarms on the utility suppliers. Workers despatched to analyze discovered the bridge broken and reported it to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Video from a forward-looking digital camera on the Miss Mollye D captured a automobile passing over the bridge with seen lights earlier than the contact. In addition, the sudden lack of velocity and the visible indication of the barges pitching up would have been clear indicators of the bridge strike.
According to NTSB investigators, based mostly on the proof, it’s obvious the pilot was conscious the tow hit the bridge, however he didn’t report the strike to the reduction captain or to the U.S. Coast Guard. Federal rules require the operator of a vessel concerned in an unintended bridge strike to instantly notify the closest U.S. Coast Guard workplace.
The bridge, which doesn’t cross a navigable waterway, was closed to site visitors following the contact. The south lane of the bridge remained closed till repairs could possibly be made. Repairs to the bridge have been estimated at $2 million. No accidents have been reported.
The bridge might have failed or severed fuel and electrical traces might have ignited a fireplace within the time between the placing and the discovering of the harm.
“This casualty underscores the importance of reporting bridge strikes and other casualties immediately after they occur,” the report mentioned. “Traffic over the bridge was not stopped until the utility workers found the damage, hours after the casualty occurred.”
IMPAIRMENT FACTORS
The NTSB decided the possible reason behind the contact of the Miss Mollye D tow with the Route 182 bridge was a lack of management of the tow by the pilot on the helm of the towing vessel, doubtless attributable to impairment by components corresponding to fatigue or drug use.
According to the complete NTSB report, “the tow’s veering to port when it stopped in the channel just after 0300 and when it struck the bridge at 0326 could not be explained by machinery issues, external forces, or distraction of the pilot. The crew reported no issues with steering or propulsion systems, and current and wind conditions were benign. The pilot stated that he did not use the two cell phones in the wheelhouse during the watch, and records for the phones confirmed no activity. While the pilot may have been fixated on the weather report just before the casualty, this does not explain the first instance of the tow veering to port, nor does it explain why he did not correct the tow’s course before looking at the weather report.”
“A more likely explanation of the vessel’s erratic movement and the towboat pilot’s actions before and after the casualty is impairment,” says the fulls NTSB report. “Possible causes of impairment embrace fatigue or drug use. The pilot and reduction captain have been standing watch on a 6-hours-on, 6-hours-off foundation. Research has proven that this watch rotation results in shorter sleep durations, extra frequent nodding off on watch, and extra situations of extreme sleepiness when in comparison with a 4-hours-on, 8-hours-off watch rotation. In addition, the casualty occurred throughout a time interval thought of to be a circadian low (roughly 0200– 0600), when the physique is generally extra fatigued and vulnerable to diminished alertness and degraded efficiency. An individual who’s fatigued is vulnerable to episodes of microsleep, a short interval of sleep lasting lower than 15 seconds. The International Maritime Organization notes that, ‘during microsleep, the brain disengages from the environment (it stops processing visual information and sounds).’ Although the pilot informed investigators that he didn’t go to sleep, it’s doable for an individual to expertise microsleep with out recognition that it has occurred. However, as a result of there have been no different crewmembers within the Miss Mollye D wheelhouse throughout the occasions previous the casualty, the influence of fatigue couldn’t be conclusively decided.
“The pilot submitted to a urinalysis on the afternoon of the casualty, and the results were negative for all tested-for drugs. Methamphetamines were screened in the test, and therefore it is unlikely that the pilot was impaired by that drug at the time of the contact with the bridge. However, the urinalysis did not test for buprenorphine or fentanyl, and hair-sample testing conducted 5 weeks after the casualty indicated that the pilot used these drugs at some point in the preceding 1–2 months. Buprenorphine [used to ease withdrawal from opioids such as fentanyl] causes mental and physical impairment, and fentanyl causes confusion, drowsiness, and dizziness. While the use of either of these drugs could have caused the pilot to be impaired, the specific timing of the drug use could not be determined by the hair sample test.”
There’s rather more on this subject within the toxicology part of the complete report.
- You can learn the complete report HERE
