Articles Posted in Injury at Sea

An engineer aboard the tug BARBARA McALLISTER injured his leg and became stuck in the vessel’s engine room. The tug was working the Hudson River near Kingston N.Y. when the accident happened. With the aid of the United States Coast Guard and local emergency services, the crewman was freed and transported for emergency medical services. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time and is under investigation.

Tom Webster, a 26-year old deckhand aboard the fishing vessel CAPE RELIANT, has been medevaced to a hospital in Anchorage for treatment of head injuries. Webster was reportedly injured around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday when the 58-foot fishing vessel he was working on was approximately 55 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The Coast Guard Cutter ALEX HALEY was just ten miles away from the CAPE RELIANT when it initially received the call for medical help. They dispatched medical corpsmen and an EMT to help Webster and then called for evacuation by helicopter. The injured crewman was taken to Dutch Harbor, where he was subsequently transferred via Guardian flight service to Anchorage. The CAPE RELIANT is home ported in Petersburg, Alaska. The facts and circumstances surrounding Webster’s injury are unknown.

Early Friday a fish processor suffered a serious hand injury while working aboard the fish processing vessel PACIFIC GLACIER. The crewman was medivaced from the vessel by a Coast Guard Helicopter. The 46-year old crewman, Mamadou Konato, was working 40 miles southwest of Coos Bay aboard the 276-foot PACIFIC GLACIER when the accident occurred. Under Federal Safety Regulations, the Coast Guard is charged with the duty to investigate all serious accidents involving crewmen working aboard fishing vessels.
Continue reading

Coast Guard aircrews based in Kodiak, Alaska, flew 1,800 miles to conduct a successful medical evacuation of Aung Bo Bo Htay, an injured oiler on the BK CHAMP, a 580-foot South Korean bulk carrier. Htay, a Burmese national, seriously injured his hand in the vessel’s engine room. The Coast Guard District 17 command center received a phone call from the BK CHAMP reporting Htay’s injury and requesting a medevac.

The Coast Guard launched two Kodiak-based helicopters, which were forced to rest overnight in Dutch Harbor because of the great distance between Kodiak and Adak. One of the helicopters successfully gathered Htay and transferred him to emergency medical services in Adak; soon after he was transported to Anchorage for further treatment.

Though Htay suffered a serious hand injury as a result of the accident in the engine room, he is in good health otherwise. The lawyers at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC have handled various maritime personal injury cases of all sorts, including hand injuries very similar to Htay’s in this article. If you have a question about this article or any maritime injury, feel free to call one of the lawyers at Beard Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC.

A crewman suffered a head injury on Tuesday and was airlifted from a fishing vessel 50 miles off the Oregon Coast. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time. Two Coast Guard helicopters responded to the emergency. The crewman was taken to North Bend for treatment. Commercial fishermen working in Oregon and Washington continue to suffer injuries at an alarming rate. Every vessel owner owes their crewmen a safe place to work and a seaworthy vessel. In cases of serious injuries, crewmen must be evacuated for treatment as soon as possible. This is particularly true in head injury cases, where the extent of crewmen’s injuries may not be readily apparent, and complications can have delayed onset.

A crewman working aboard the fishing vessel RONDYS suffered a head injury requiring emergency medical evacuation today. The accident happened 160 miles off shore from Westport. The fishing vessel RONDYS is a 113-foot steel hulled vessel built in 1993; records indicate the vessel is owned by Rondys Tendering LLC of Westport. The crewman was airlifted to Emanuel Hospital in Portland for treatment, and his condition is unknown. What caused the accident is unknown at this time.

A 61 year old crewman was evacuated from the 88-foot scallop boat EILEEN MARIE on Saturday. The crewman reportedly had been hit on the head by a scallop dredge and was barely responsive. The accident happened 50 miles off the coast of Cape May. The Eileen Marie is home ported in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Coast Guard airlifted the crewman for emergency medical treatment at AtlaniCare Regional Hospital in Atlantic City for treatment. The cause of the accident is unknown.

Beard Stacey & Jacobsen is one of the nation’s leading maritime injury firms. A Boston jury returned a two million dollar verdict for their client last year in a case involving a New England scallop boat. Crewmen working on scallop boats are at high risk for injuries, given the nature of the dredging operation and deck work.

The clam dredge ESS PURSUIT has been ordered to return to port, and its catch isolated, after they discovered 10 mystery containers today while working in Hudson Canyon. One container broke open and exposed two crewmen to the contents. They subsequently developed blisters and difficulty breathing. The crewmen were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment. The catch from the vessel has been isolated to determine if it was contaminated, and the vessel is being surveyed to see if it needs to be decontaminated. The Coast Guard and U.S. Public Health Services are investigating the incident.

The Coast Guard has airlifted an injured crewman from a Lake Charles Pilot boat approximately 10 miles south of Sabine Pass. The crewman had fallen overboard from the offshore supply vessel, Miss Mia, and had been rescued by the pilot boat. The injured crewman was airlifted by a Coast Guard MH-65 helicopter and transported to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, Texas for treatment. Facts related to the cause of the accident are unknown at this time, as is the condition of the rescued crewman.

Late Friday night three tribal fishermen died when their small fishing vessel capsized on the Columbia River near Wisham, Washington. One man survived the accident. The fishermen were part of the Yakima tribe and were participating in a commercial gill netting season for spring run Chinook salmon. The surviving fisherman was able to swim to shore. None of the crewmen were wearing personal flotation devices. The circumstances of how the accident happened are unclear. Winds were reported to be blowing 30 miles an hour at the time of the accident. Another tribal fishing boat reportedly sank on Thursday, but those fishermen luckily escaped injury.