Just weeks after the final decision in the Exxon Valdez case, another (fortunately) smaller oil spill makes the news with the sentencing of to the helsman of the Cosco Busan. The tanker was involved in an oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 2007.
For more on the Exxon Valdez case resolution in June, go to http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-valdez16-2009jun16,0,7865562.story
For the 2008 Supreme Court decision in the case, go to http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-219.pdf
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://fishtail.tv
http://tbilaw.com
Date: 7/17/2009 6:54 PM
JARED GRIGSBY,Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The helmsman of a cargo ship that set off a major environmental disaster in the San Francisco Bay was sentenced Friday to 10 months in prison.
John Cota pleaded guilty in March to two misdemeanor environmental crimes of illegally discharging oil in the bay and killing thousands of birds.
Cota apologized to the court and to the “people of the Bay Area for the damage I have caused.”
Cota’s attorney, Jeff Bornstein, had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to impose a two-month sentence.
Bornstein argued that his client wasn’t the only person responsible for the Nov. 7, 2007, oil spill that poured more than 53,000 gallons of oil into the water after the 901-foot Cosco Busan struck a tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The spill killed 2,000 birds, fouled dozens of miles of coastline and cost commercial fishermen millions of dollars in lost revenue.
A poorly trained Chinese crew, language barriers and others factors beyond Cota’s control contributed to the accident, Bornstein said.
“This was an accident, a chain of errors and lots of people played a role in it,” Bornstein said.
Illston, however, said Cota was hired to guide the ship out of the San Francisco Bay because of his extensive knowledge of the region and should have known where the bridge was located.
“You have a structure that has not moved from its position for many, many years,” she said.
The judge also agreed with prosecutors that Cota made several disastrously poor decisions while piloting the ship. Authorities have said he shouldn’t have departed in extreme fog when pilots of six other large vessels decided not to, failed to have a discussion with the ship’s master to review the transit plan and failed to notify the Coast Guard that the ship’s radar was unreliable.
“I know there is a lot of blame to go around,” Illston said. “But, I think Capt. Cota was right in the middle of it.”
About a dozen family and friends from Cota’s hometown of Petaluma crowded into the courtroom to also urge the judge for a more lenient sentence than the 10 months demanded by federal prosecutors.
Teresa Barrett, Cota’s wife, told the judge that the family has spent more than $500,000 on legal fees and faced even more financial punishment because of several lawsuits pending against Cota from fishermen and others seeking to recover expenses caused by the spill.
“We risk losing the only home our sons have known,” she said before breaking down in tears.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Feds cite poor information-sharing in ship crash
Date: 2/19/2009
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — A medically unfit pilot, an ineffective captain and poor communications between the two were the cause of a November 2007 accident leading a ship to spill thousands of gallons of fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay, safety officials said Wednesday.
In reviewing the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said prescription medications impaired the performance of the pilot trying to guide the 901-foot-long Cosco Busan under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The ship sideswiped one of the bridge’s support towers.
The board also stressed that the captain failed to oversee the pilot’s performance. The board said the two poorly communicated what efforts should be undertaken to guide the ship through dense fog.
The board found other contributing factors as well. It said the ship’s operator, Fleet Management, Ltd., didn’t properly train and prepare crew members prior to the accident, and the U.S. Coast Guard failed to provide adequate medical oversight of the pilot.
“How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge, is very troubling, and raises a great many questions about the adequacy of the medical oversight system for mariners,” said Mark V. Rosenker, the NTSB’s acting chairman.
The crash ruptured two fuel tanks, and more than 53,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled into the bay. Cleanup efforts cost more than $70 million. No one was injured in the crash, but the spill contaminated 26 miles of shoreline. It also killed more than 2,500 birds of about 50 species and delayed the start of the crab-fishing season.
Investigators told the board that the pilot, John Cota, committed several errors during the trip, including failure to interpret radar images and effectively communicate with officials when questions arose about the ship’s course. Yet, the captain, Mao Cai Sun, didn’t step in and take control despite troubling signals.
The captain’s lack of experience with the bay made him more dependent upon the pilot to guide the ship, investigators said. Language differences also contributed to their lack of communication, and perhaps cultural differences did as well, with the captain less willing to question the authority of somebody with superior knowledge of local waters, investigators said.
Investigators also said medical records for the ship’s pilot showed he had taken numerous prescription medications in the months leading up to the accident and that some of the medications are shown to have an adverse effect on cognitive performance.
“There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable,” Rosenker said.
Cota, and the ship’s Hong Kong-based operator, Fleet Management Ltd. have been charged with crimes connected to the spill. Cota’s lawyer Jeff Bornstein alleged that his client is a “scapegoat” for an accident caused by many factors, including a poorly trained crew that spoke little English.
“That ship was unseaworthy because the crew was so improperly trained,” Bornstein said.
Cota has pleaded not guilty to two felonies alleging he failed to disclose prescription drugs he was taking on two annual medical reports required by the Coast Guard. Fleet Management is charged with ordering at least one Chinese crew member to alter documents after the accident. Both are also charged with environmental crimes.
Some NTSB members said they saw an even more fundamental problem that contributed to the accident.
“This accident started when they left the dock,” said board member Debbie Hersman. “They should have never left the dock in those conditions.”
But investigator Rob Jones told the board that he believed a competent crew could pass under the bridge despite the poor visibility.
“Ships do depart in fog,” Jones said. “Ships did depart in fog before the Cosco Busan.”
The board also made eight recommendations designed to improve safety, including asking the International Maritime Organization to address cultural and language differences in its bridge resource management curricula. It also wants to require mariners to report any substantive changes in their health or medication use between required medical evaluations.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Elias contributed to this report from San Francisco.
____
On the Net:
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — A medically unfit pilot, an ineffective captain and poor communications between the two were the cause of a November 2007 accident leading a ship to spill thousands of gallons of fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay, safety officials said Wednesday.
In reviewing the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said prescription medications impaired the performance of the pilot trying to guide the 901-foot-long Cosco Busan under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The ship sideswiped one of the bridge’s support towers.
The board also stressed that the captain failed to oversee the pilot’s performance. The board said the two poorly communicated what efforts should be undertaken to guide the ship through dense fog.
The board found other contributing factors as well. It said the ship’s operator, Fleet Management, Ltd., didn’t properly train and prepare crew members prior to the accident, and the U.S. Coast Guard failed to provide adequate medical oversight of the pilot.
“How a man who was taking a half-dozen impairing prescription medications got to stand on the bridge of a 68,000-ton ship and give directions to guide the vessel through a foggy bay and under a busy highway bridge, is very troubling, and raises a great many questions about the adequacy of the medical oversight system for mariners,” said Mark V. Rosenker, the NTSB’s acting chairman.
The crash ruptured two fuel tanks, and more than 53,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled into the bay. Cleanup efforts cost more than $70 million. No one was injured in the crash, but the spill contaminated 26 miles of shoreline. It also killed more than 2,500 birds of about 50 species and delayed the start of the crab-fishing season.
Investigators told the board that the pilot, John Cota, committed several errors during the trip, including failure to interpret radar images and effectively communicate with officials when questions arose about the ship’s course. Yet, the captain, Mao Cai Sun, didn’t step in and take control despite troubling signals.
The captain’s lack of experience with the bay made him more dependent upon the pilot to guide the ship, investigators said. Language differences also contributed to their lack of communication, and perhaps cultural differences did as well, with the captain less willing to question the authority of somebody with superior knowledge of local waters, investigators said.
Investigators also said medical records for the ship’s pilot showed he had taken numerous prescription medications in the months leading up to the accident and that some of the medications are shown to have an adverse effect on cognitive performance.
“There was a lack of competence in so many areas that this accident seemed almost inevitable,” Rosenker said.
Cota, and the ship’s Hong Kong-based operator, Fleet Management Ltd. have been charged with crimes connected to the spill. Cota’s lawyer Jeff Bornstein alleged that his client is a “scapegoat” for an accident caused by many factors, including a poorly trained crew that spoke little English.
“That ship was unseaworthy because the crew was so improperly trained,” Bornstein said.
Cota has pleaded not guilty to two felonies alleging he failed to disclose prescription drugs he was taking on two annual medical reports required by the Coast Guard. Fleet Management is charged with ordering at least one Chinese crew member to alter documents after the accident. Both are also charged with environmental crimes.
Some NTSB members said they saw an even more fundamental problem that contributed to the accident.
“This accident started when they left the dock,” said board member Debbie Hersman. “They should have never left the dock in those conditions.”
But investigator Rob Jones told the board that he believed a competent crew could pass under the bridge despite the poor visibility.
“Ships do depart in fog,” Jones said. “Ships did depart in fog before the Cosco Busan.”
The board also made eight recommendations designed to improve safety, including asking the International Maritime Organization to address cultural and language differences in its bridge resource management curricula. It also wants to require mariners to report any substantive changes in their health or medication use between required medical evaluations.
___
Associated Press writer Paul Elias contributed to this report from San Francisco.
____
On the Net:
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
