Maritime Accidents: Vessle Ulysse, Rammed into Ship CSL Virginia

Our New York Jones Act lawyers, know how important a comptent and alert crew can be. On Sunday, October 7, 2018, the container ship 'CSL Virginia' collided with the ferry 'Ulysse' in Corsica. The Ulysse is a Ro-Ro vessel, a maritime acronym for Roll on- Roll Off- where vehicles drive onto the vessel and then drive off. The hull of the cargo ship was ruptured as a result of the accident. As a result, a 4 kilometer bunker spill was recorded off the coast of Corsica. According to a recent report, investigators determined that a martime casualty involving the vessel the Ulysse was caused by a string of errors. The event was caused by a succession of human mistakes, according to Youssef Ben Romdhane, director general of marine transport at Tunisia's trade ministry.One of the biggest errors was that the watch officer on board the Tunisian vessel Ulysse was on his phone, while the watch officer on board the container ship Virginia ignored radar alerts. This resulted in the October collision of the two ships near Corsica, which resulted in an oil leak. Recent studies have found that human error is a contributing factor in over seventy percent of all maritime casualties. In fact, Allianz performed an analysis over fifteen thousand maritime incidents and found that more than seventy five percent had human error as a primary cause.

Our boat accident lawyers know that immeasurable damage is done to wildlife when oil spills into a waterway and these crashed can also have a devastating impact on the crew and passengers who are subjected to the risk of injury and death. 

According to the United States Coast Guard, crew and operator inattention are one of the most common causes of marine incidents.  While most people are familar with the dangers of operating a motor vehicle such as a car while using a cell phone or while distracted, our New York boat accident lawyers know these dangers are magnified exponentially in the maritime contest.  Unlike motor vehicle accidents, boats do not have brakes or the ability to make a suddent stop, which means that safe navigation practices are essential to avoid maritime accidents. While the Admiralty has centries old rules of navigation, they will not prevent accidents if they are not followed and if the crew is inattentive. Our New York boat accident lawyers have extensive experience in representing both passengers and crew members who sustained personal injuries in vessel accidents. 

Human error is not the only maritime hazard that mariners face. Defective equipment is another major cause of injuries to both crew members and passengers. A recent martime tragedy occurred when a Jones Act seaman died as a result of a defective ladder.  The U.S. Coast Guard issued a report which found that the mariner died as he attempted to use a portable ladder to transfer between a deck barge and a towing vessel. The merchant marine fell off the ladder which was not secured, fell overboard and was not wearing a personal flotation device. He was never seen again. The Coast Guard findings faulted the unsecured ladder that was used during a transit and the lack of a personal flotation device. A personal flotation device can keep a mariner's head above water even when they are unconscious. The family of the merchant marine who suffered this tragedy can sue under the Jones Act, the Death on the High Seas Act and the General maritime law doctrine of unseaworthiness. The doctrine of unseaworthiness allows crew members to sue vessel owners if they are injured because of an unseaworthy condition, which generally speaking is interpreted to mean any dangerous condition aboard a ship, including the lack of safe equipment.