LAFAYETTE — The family of a man who was shot and killed by a police officer last year filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages for his alleged wrongful death.
Eleven of Shane Damond’s family members have signed onto the wrongful death and deprivation of civil rights lawsuit, which was filed Friday.
The lawsuit names as defendants Officer Michael Milazzo, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft and the city of Lafayette.
Authorities have said that Milazzo was patrolling in the Mudd Avenue and Louisiana Avenue area on July 26, 2008, when he spotted a car — reported stolen three days earlier — in the parking lot of a Circle K store.
When Milazzo approached the car, Damond, who was the driver, began backing up the car, dragging Milazzo with it.
Milazzo fired his pistol and struck Damond, 37. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
District Attorney Mike Harson’s office brought the case before a grand jury to avoid any appearance of impropriety, because it involved an officer.
A grand jury returned a no true bill in April.
The lawsuit offers a different version of events and states that without acting in violation of any law, Damond was “unexpectedly and violently attacked without provocation” by Milazzo.
“Upon being shot, Shane Damond, remained conscious but slumped to his side in obvious agony. Shane Damond died of his wounds several minutes later,” the suit states.
The suit accuses Milazzo of “resorting immediately to lethal force without any effort whatsoever to arrest, apprehend and/or subdue the deceased.”
The suit further alleges that Milazzo did not warn Damond of his intention to use deadly force nor did he call other officers to assist him.
The suit lists Craft as a defendant because he is Milazzo’s superior and therefore responsible for his training.
This article was written by Jason Brown of The Advocate
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/51829892.html
The death of a loved one is not the only loss a family suffers in a wrongful death suit. There are many financial obstacles that must be overcome, like funeral and burial costs, incurred debts, mortgage payments, childcare expenses and the loss of potential income by the deceased. The attorneys at Murphy Law Firm represent families who have lost a loved one due to a wrongful death.
http://batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/wrongful%20death.html
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Bucket Brigade calls for Dow data
An environmental watchdog group said Wednesday that the public still doesn't know how much ethyl acrylate was released from Dow Chemical in Hahnville last week, and criticized St. Charles Parish officials for not evacuating homes closest to the plant.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade said residents need to know how much of the chemical, which can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, was in the air during the early hours of the release, which began July 7 around 4 a.m.
"Dow has tried to play down this release by calling it a bad odor," said Anna Hrybyk, the organization's program manager, at a Wednesday morning news conference. "The fact is that it was a chemical release and we do not know how much of the chemical was released. We do know that people were treated at the hospital because of this accident and that Dow has a serious, ongoing problem with this chemical. It's not a simple odor."
Dow spokesman Tommy Faucheux said the company acted appropriately by sending a technical expert to work with the parish's emergency operations center the morning of the release.
"I'm confident that we assessed the event correctly," he said.
In addition to last week's incident, Hrybyk said, the company reported airborne releases of fumes from the chemical on Oct. 20, 2008, and April 22, 2009, to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"We are demanding that they come clean and say how much was released," Hrybyk said.
Michael Kernan, postmaster of the New Sarpy Post Office, said at the news conference that his eyes, nose and throat started to burn shortly after he arrived at work at 7 a.m.
"The St. Charles Parish maintenance unit was evacuated to St. Rose, but why didn't they evacuate the day-care center down the street?" Kernan said.
Day-care owner Deione Daniels said she and the 27 children at Deione's Early Learning Center were initially told that there was no health risk, even after she and her children started feeling symptoms.
"They told me the smell was really bad but that it was not hazardous," she said.
Ethyl acrylate can be smelled at concentrations of less than 1 part per billion, but isn't deemed toxic for a healthy adult until it reaches 30 parts per million.
The Oct. 20, 2008, release occurred when piping was being flushed; 9,587 pounds of material was released into the process sewer area because of "multiple valve failure." Because the area is open to the atmosphere, 168 pounds of the material evaporated over 14 hours, Dow's report to the Department of Environmental Quality said.
The company told the DEQ that the valves were not part of a preventive maintenance program, but one would be started in the future.
The April 22 incident released 24.8 pounds of ethyl acrylate into the atmosphere after a flaring system to vent vapors malfunctioned.
Scott Whelchel, St. Charles Parish's emergency preparedness director, said that the parish's emergency center operators must depend to some extent on information from industrial plants to recommend actions to protect the public.
The parish had bus drivers on standby throughout most of the week in case a large-scale evacuation was necessary, Whelchel said.
"The company has the expertise to tell us what is happening and what protective measures need to be taken," he said.
However, the parish's Emergency Operations Center logs show that its operators repeatedly pressed Dow for information on what was happening. It was the parish EOC that notified Dow of the stench wafting across the river after someone from Shell Chemical called in to report it shortly before 4 a.m.
Faucheux said that depending on the wind, the plant operators may not be aware of a problem if the site's perimeter air monitors don't go off.
Faucheux said Dow's priority is to let parish officials know immediately that something is going on, even as company personnel try to find out what is happening.
"It took us a little longer to nail down the issue, but as soon as we had something concrete, we shared it with the parish," he said.
This article was written by Matt Scallan of The Times Picayune
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/riverparishes/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1247722269323830.xml&coll=1
Chemicals are used everyday in your home and at the workplace. Though most manufactures and property owners follow safety guidelines, toxic accidents are sometimes the result of negligence and/or intentional acts of corporate wrongdoers. Don't hesitate to call Murphy Law Firm if you have been exposed to harmful chemicals or toxins.
http://batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/chemical%20toxic%20exposure.html
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade said residents need to know how much of the chemical, which can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, was in the air during the early hours of the release, which began July 7 around 4 a.m.
"Dow has tried to play down this release by calling it a bad odor," said Anna Hrybyk, the organization's program manager, at a Wednesday morning news conference. "The fact is that it was a chemical release and we do not know how much of the chemical was released. We do know that people were treated at the hospital because of this accident and that Dow has a serious, ongoing problem with this chemical. It's not a simple odor."
Dow spokesman Tommy Faucheux said the company acted appropriately by sending a technical expert to work with the parish's emergency operations center the morning of the release.
"I'm confident that we assessed the event correctly," he said.
In addition to last week's incident, Hrybyk said, the company reported airborne releases of fumes from the chemical on Oct. 20, 2008, and April 22, 2009, to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
"We are demanding that they come clean and say how much was released," Hrybyk said.
Michael Kernan, postmaster of the New Sarpy Post Office, said at the news conference that his eyes, nose and throat started to burn shortly after he arrived at work at 7 a.m.
"The St. Charles Parish maintenance unit was evacuated to St. Rose, but why didn't they evacuate the day-care center down the street?" Kernan said.
Day-care owner Deione Daniels said she and the 27 children at Deione's Early Learning Center were initially told that there was no health risk, even after she and her children started feeling symptoms.
"They told me the smell was really bad but that it was not hazardous," she said.
Ethyl acrylate can be smelled at concentrations of less than 1 part per billion, but isn't deemed toxic for a healthy adult until it reaches 30 parts per million.
The Oct. 20, 2008, release occurred when piping was being flushed; 9,587 pounds of material was released into the process sewer area because of "multiple valve failure." Because the area is open to the atmosphere, 168 pounds of the material evaporated over 14 hours, Dow's report to the Department of Environmental Quality said.
The company told the DEQ that the valves were not part of a preventive maintenance program, but one would be started in the future.
The April 22 incident released 24.8 pounds of ethyl acrylate into the atmosphere after a flaring system to vent vapors malfunctioned.
Scott Whelchel, St. Charles Parish's emergency preparedness director, said that the parish's emergency center operators must depend to some extent on information from industrial plants to recommend actions to protect the public.
The parish had bus drivers on standby throughout most of the week in case a large-scale evacuation was necessary, Whelchel said.
"The company has the expertise to tell us what is happening and what protective measures need to be taken," he said.
However, the parish's Emergency Operations Center logs show that its operators repeatedly pressed Dow for information on what was happening. It was the parish EOC that notified Dow of the stench wafting across the river after someone from Shell Chemical called in to report it shortly before 4 a.m.
Faucheux said that depending on the wind, the plant operators may not be aware of a problem if the site's perimeter air monitors don't go off.
Faucheux said Dow's priority is to let parish officials know immediately that something is going on, even as company personnel try to find out what is happening.
"It took us a little longer to nail down the issue, but as soon as we had something concrete, we shared it with the parish," he said.
This article was written by Matt Scallan of The Times Picayune
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/riverparishes/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1247722269323830.xml&coll=1
Chemicals are used everyday in your home and at the workplace. Though most manufactures and property owners follow safety guidelines, toxic accidents are sometimes the result of negligence and/or intentional acts of corporate wrongdoers. Don't hesitate to call Murphy Law Firm if you have been exposed to harmful chemicals or toxins.
http://batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/chemical%20toxic%20exposure.html
Danish study looks at link between HRT, cancer
CHICAGO, July 14 (Reuters) - Menopausal women who took hormone replacement therapy increased their risk of ovarian cancer by 38 percent, Danish researchers reported on Tuesday.
The study of more than 900,000 Danish women aged 50 to 79 found about one extra ovarian cancer for roughly 8,300 women taking hormone therapy each year.
At the time they got sick, 9 percent of the women were taking hormone therapy, 22 percent were previous users and 63 percent did not take it. The researchers calculated that current hormone use conferred a 38 percent higher risk of contracting the disease compared to non-users over the eight-year study.
Hormone therapy was linked to 140 extra cases of ovarian cancer in Denmark during the eight-year study, accounting for 5 percent of all cases in that period, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Even though this share seems low, ovarian cancer remains highly fatal, so accordingly this risk warrants consideration when deciding whether to use (hormone therapy)," wrote Lina Steinrud Morch and colleagues at Copenhagen University.
The findings were similar to those in the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, which was stopped early because it found an increased risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, strokes and other health problems from hormone therapy or HRT.
HRT use plunged after the WHI study, and sales of U.S. market leader Wyeth's (WYE.N) combined estrogen-progestin therapy Prempro have fallen by 50 percent since 2001 to around $1 billion a year.
For women considering hormone therapy, "family history comes into play, and your own personal medical history certainly comes into play. Those risks have to be discussed with your doctor," said Wyeth's director of global medical affairs, Dr. Corrado Altomare, who was not involved in the Danish study.
The risks of ovarian cancer were about the same from hormone therapy regardless of the duration of use, the formulation of the hormones, the estrogen dose, or how it was administered, according to the study.
As in earlier studies, it found the cancer risk diminished about two years after therapy was stopped.
Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect before it spreads, and therefore is often fatal. Roughly 18 out of 100,000 U.S. women are diagnosed yearly with the disease, which killed 15,000 Americans in 2007, according to government statistics.
What causes cancer cells to appear in the ovaries in the first place is not known, but estrogen is believed to spur tumor growth and may be a trigger.
This post was written by Andrew Stern
http://www.reuters.com/article/euRegulatoryNews/idUSN1426894820090714
If you have suffered adverse side effects from defective medications, do not hesitate to call Murphy Law Firm.
http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/defective%20drugs.html
The study of more than 900,000 Danish women aged 50 to 79 found about one extra ovarian cancer for roughly 8,300 women taking hormone therapy each year.
At the time they got sick, 9 percent of the women were taking hormone therapy, 22 percent were previous users and 63 percent did not take it. The researchers calculated that current hormone use conferred a 38 percent higher risk of contracting the disease compared to non-users over the eight-year study.
Hormone therapy was linked to 140 extra cases of ovarian cancer in Denmark during the eight-year study, accounting for 5 percent of all cases in that period, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Even though this share seems low, ovarian cancer remains highly fatal, so accordingly this risk warrants consideration when deciding whether to use (hormone therapy)," wrote Lina Steinrud Morch and colleagues at Copenhagen University.
The findings were similar to those in the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, which was stopped early because it found an increased risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, strokes and other health problems from hormone therapy or HRT.
HRT use plunged after the WHI study, and sales of U.S. market leader Wyeth's (WYE.N) combined estrogen-progestin therapy Prempro have fallen by 50 percent since 2001 to around $1 billion a year.
For women considering hormone therapy, "family history comes into play, and your own personal medical history certainly comes into play. Those risks have to be discussed with your doctor," said Wyeth's director of global medical affairs, Dr. Corrado Altomare, who was not involved in the Danish study.
The risks of ovarian cancer were about the same from hormone therapy regardless of the duration of use, the formulation of the hormones, the estrogen dose, or how it was administered, according to the study.
As in earlier studies, it found the cancer risk diminished about two years after therapy was stopped.
Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect before it spreads, and therefore is often fatal. Roughly 18 out of 100,000 U.S. women are diagnosed yearly with the disease, which killed 15,000 Americans in 2007, according to government statistics.
What causes cancer cells to appear in the ovaries in the first place is not known, but estrogen is believed to spur tumor growth and may be a trigger.
This post was written by Andrew Stern
http://www.reuters.com/article/euRegulatoryNews/idUSN1426894820090714
If you have suffered adverse side effects from defective medications, do not hesitate to call Murphy Law Firm.
http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/defective%20drugs.html
Friday, July 10, 2009
Kolcraft recalls 1 million play yards
WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Kolcraft play yards due to a fall hazard.
The play yards include a side rail that can fail to close properly. The latches on the side rails can open unexpected, causing a child to fall, the commission said in in a statement.
About 1 million of the play yards made in China, Spain and Italy, were imported by Kolcraft Enterprises of Chicago, Ill., and sold nationwide between January 2000 and January 2009 for between $50 and $160.
The recall involves Kolcraft Travelin' Tot play yards manufactured for Carter's, Sesame Street, Jeep, Contures, Care Bare and Eric Carle, the commission said.
Consumers were advised to stop using the recalled play yards immediately and contact Kolcraft for a free repair kit.
Consumers can call 866-594-4208 for information.
Defective products harm millions of people each year. Manufacturers should be held responsible for design defects, improper safety devices and manufacturing defects.
Don't Be A Victim Twice!
http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/defective%20products.html
Tugboat pilot plan may have backfired
NEW ORLEANS — A federal program to recruit more tugboat pilots may have backfired by allowing thousands of novice captains to take the helm and contributing to a 25 percent increase in the number of accidents on the nation's rivers.
An Associated Press review of Coast Guard records indicates that the U.S. tugboat fleet is increasingly piloted by captains who have spent as little as one year in the wheelhouse.
"The system has failed," said David Whitehurst, a tug captain and member of the board of directors for the National Mariners Association, a national tug workers' group based in Houma, La.
"We have the highest horsepower in history, pushing more tonnage than ever in history, with the least knowledgeable personnel in history. It is a disaster. Look at the accidents we've had in the past few years."
Said Richard Block, secretary of the mariners' group: "You can't learn to run a towing vessel overnight, and some of these companies are simply rushing it too much."
Pushing or pulling barges piled high with freight, today's river tugboats are the 18-wheelers of the waterways, transporting all manner of goods such as oil, grain and chemicals.
At the start of the decade, the Coast Guard was under pressure from the shipping industry to revamp its training and licensing process for river pilots because an older generation of captains in their 50s was beginning to retire, creating a labor shortage.
The agency scrapped the time-honored "master's system" in which captains hand-selected rookies for pilot training. Instead, officials began allowing companies to pick trainees and pay for them to become "apprentice steersmen."
Under the new system, someone can get behind the controls of a tug after just a year, whereas the old arrangement required new pilots to spend years working their way up to the captain's seat.
In 2003, just 16 pilots were issued new apprentice towing licenses. By 2007, that number ballooned to 871, and last year to 885. The new pilots come cheap, too. An apprentice earns about $175 a day compared with $450 a day for a top-grade pilot.
But as the industry has added thousands of new pilots, the number of accidents involving tugs, barges and related vessels has jumped 25 percent, from 1,399 in 2003 to 1,754 in 2008.
And it's not because more goods are getting shipped. Over that same span, cargo volumes rose by only about 3 percent.
Capt. David Stalfort of the National Maritime Center, the Coast Guard's licensing branch, said the old master's licensing system had well-documented flaws. Before 1973, for example, tug licenses were not even required. And even after that, licenses were handed out to pilots with limited training.
The new system has done what it was designed to do. "The apprentice mate is an effective program to get people into the program," Stalfort said. "I wouldn't characterize it as people coming off the street."
But Whitehurst and others worry that the industry has become saturated with inexperienced pilots.
"I started out here when I was 14 years old, and I'm 58 now, and I'm still learning," Whitehurst said. "This is hands-on. The stuff we do cannot be put in a book.
"Over years of doing it, you develop a feel for what you're doing. You look at the surface of the water — the water lilies, the debris floating down the river, the channel-marking buoys. It is like a book with open pages, and as the old timers would say, you read it."
Some experts say there is not yet enough evidence to raise the alarm about apprentice pilots.
"Ask me in 2011," said Richard Wells, a retired Coast Guard license examiner. "I think we'll have a better idea whether this change in licensing was positive or negative as far as the accident rate."
The new pilots are supposed to be overseen by fully licensed helmsmen, but they often run boats alone. Requirements for log books, training and mechanical checkups are routinely ignored, mariners and experts said.
The Coast Guard has long been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cargo on the nation's 25,000 miles of inland waterways. The agency has focused its efforts on bigger ships, which carry more cargo, and on fishing and recreational boats, which account for most accidents.
That leaves tugboats largely unpoliced.
The tugboat industry has "always been out of sight, out of mind," said Whitehurst, the tug captain. "The rails and trucking industry, they're in everybody's face. A towboat, they're isolated, they're behind the tree line."
For tugboat pilots, the cost of an error can be frightfully high.
When a towboat commanded by a sleep-deprived novice pilot pushed a fuel barge in front of a tanker in the New Orleans harbor, the collision sliced the fuel barge in half and spilled 283,000 gallons of oil.
The accident in the wee hours of July 23, 2008, caused one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, even though the tanker never ruptured.
John Paul Bavaret II, the man in the wheelhouse that night, held only an apprentice pilot's license. There should have been a fully licensed pilot with him. Bavaret (ba-vuh-RAY') told the Coast Guard he had routinely piloted vessels on his own, and that it was common practice at the company he worked for, DRD Towing Co. of Harvey, La.
Thomas A. Allegretti, the tug industry's leading lobbyist, characterized DRD as a rogue firm.
"No responsible operator is going to routinely participate in a practice of using unlicensed personnel in the wheelhouse," said Allegretti, whose group is called American Waterways Operators. "You would subject the safety of your crew, of your vessel, of your cargo, to enormous risk by doing that to say nothing about the attendant liability you face in terms of federal prosecution and accidents."
There have been other serious accidents involving novice pilots.
In 2005, an apprentice pilot misread warnings on the Ohio River outside Pittsburgh, and his boat and six barges plunged over a dam. Four mariners were killed.
And in 2003, a novice pilot steered a tugboat and its three tank barges into a railroad bridge on the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana, causing $210,000 in damage.
After the New Orleans accident, Congress called for action, and the tug industry moved to close some of its own loopholes.
The Coast Guard has started drawing up regulations for an improved inspection program and began the "Big Tow Operation," a nationwide effort to crack down on tugs that break the rules.
The Coast Guard is also training a new corps of 100 field inspectors specifically for tugs, hoping to examine the entire fleet.
"Most mariners want the boats inspected because it will make them safer," said Joel Milton, a New York-based tug captain and columnist for WorkBoat Magazine. "Companies would be more inclined to fix things."
This article was written by CAIN BURDEAU of theAssociated Press published on HoumaToday.com
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090708/ARTICLES/907089881/1211?Title=Tugboat-pilot-plan-may-have-backfired-
Many personal injuries are the result of boating accidents or collisions. Some examples of injuries that result from boating accidents are cervical and lumbar sprains, herniated and ruptured discs, fractures, knee injuries, brain damage, and paralysis. Victims of boating accidents may recover for pain and suffering, medical expenses, property damage, lost wages and loss of earning capacity.
Don't Be A Victim Twice!
http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/boating%20accidents.html
An Associated Press review of Coast Guard records indicates that the U.S. tugboat fleet is increasingly piloted by captains who have spent as little as one year in the wheelhouse.
"The system has failed," said David Whitehurst, a tug captain and member of the board of directors for the National Mariners Association, a national tug workers' group based in Houma, La.
"We have the highest horsepower in history, pushing more tonnage than ever in history, with the least knowledgeable personnel in history. It is a disaster. Look at the accidents we've had in the past few years."
Said Richard Block, secretary of the mariners' group: "You can't learn to run a towing vessel overnight, and some of these companies are simply rushing it too much."
Pushing or pulling barges piled high with freight, today's river tugboats are the 18-wheelers of the waterways, transporting all manner of goods such as oil, grain and chemicals.
At the start of the decade, the Coast Guard was under pressure from the shipping industry to revamp its training and licensing process for river pilots because an older generation of captains in their 50s was beginning to retire, creating a labor shortage.
The agency scrapped the time-honored "master's system" in which captains hand-selected rookies for pilot training. Instead, officials began allowing companies to pick trainees and pay for them to become "apprentice steersmen."
Under the new system, someone can get behind the controls of a tug after just a year, whereas the old arrangement required new pilots to spend years working their way up to the captain's seat.
In 2003, just 16 pilots were issued new apprentice towing licenses. By 2007, that number ballooned to 871, and last year to 885. The new pilots come cheap, too. An apprentice earns about $175 a day compared with $450 a day for a top-grade pilot.
But as the industry has added thousands of new pilots, the number of accidents involving tugs, barges and related vessels has jumped 25 percent, from 1,399 in 2003 to 1,754 in 2008.
And it's not because more goods are getting shipped. Over that same span, cargo volumes rose by only about 3 percent.
Capt. David Stalfort of the National Maritime Center, the Coast Guard's licensing branch, said the old master's licensing system had well-documented flaws. Before 1973, for example, tug licenses were not even required. And even after that, licenses were handed out to pilots with limited training.
The new system has done what it was designed to do. "The apprentice mate is an effective program to get people into the program," Stalfort said. "I wouldn't characterize it as people coming off the street."
But Whitehurst and others worry that the industry has become saturated with inexperienced pilots.
"I started out here when I was 14 years old, and I'm 58 now, and I'm still learning," Whitehurst said. "This is hands-on. The stuff we do cannot be put in a book.
"Over years of doing it, you develop a feel for what you're doing. You look at the surface of the water — the water lilies, the debris floating down the river, the channel-marking buoys. It is like a book with open pages, and as the old timers would say, you read it."
Some experts say there is not yet enough evidence to raise the alarm about apprentice pilots.
"Ask me in 2011," said Richard Wells, a retired Coast Guard license examiner. "I think we'll have a better idea whether this change in licensing was positive or negative as far as the accident rate."
The new pilots are supposed to be overseen by fully licensed helmsmen, but they often run boats alone. Requirements for log books, training and mechanical checkups are routinely ignored, mariners and experts said.
The Coast Guard has long been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cargo on the nation's 25,000 miles of inland waterways. The agency has focused its efforts on bigger ships, which carry more cargo, and on fishing and recreational boats, which account for most accidents.
That leaves tugboats largely unpoliced.
The tugboat industry has "always been out of sight, out of mind," said Whitehurst, the tug captain. "The rails and trucking industry, they're in everybody's face. A towboat, they're isolated, they're behind the tree line."
For tugboat pilots, the cost of an error can be frightfully high.
When a towboat commanded by a sleep-deprived novice pilot pushed a fuel barge in front of a tanker in the New Orleans harbor, the collision sliced the fuel barge in half and spilled 283,000 gallons of oil.
The accident in the wee hours of July 23, 2008, caused one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, even though the tanker never ruptured.
John Paul Bavaret II, the man in the wheelhouse that night, held only an apprentice pilot's license. There should have been a fully licensed pilot with him. Bavaret (ba-vuh-RAY') told the Coast Guard he had routinely piloted vessels on his own, and that it was common practice at the company he worked for, DRD Towing Co. of Harvey, La.
Thomas A. Allegretti, the tug industry's leading lobbyist, characterized DRD as a rogue firm.
"No responsible operator is going to routinely participate in a practice of using unlicensed personnel in the wheelhouse," said Allegretti, whose group is called American Waterways Operators. "You would subject the safety of your crew, of your vessel, of your cargo, to enormous risk by doing that to say nothing about the attendant liability you face in terms of federal prosecution and accidents."
There have been other serious accidents involving novice pilots.
In 2005, an apprentice pilot misread warnings on the Ohio River outside Pittsburgh, and his boat and six barges plunged over a dam. Four mariners were killed.
And in 2003, a novice pilot steered a tugboat and its three tank barges into a railroad bridge on the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana, causing $210,000 in damage.
After the New Orleans accident, Congress called for action, and the tug industry moved to close some of its own loopholes.
The Coast Guard has started drawing up regulations for an improved inspection program and began the "Big Tow Operation," a nationwide effort to crack down on tugs that break the rules.
The Coast Guard is also training a new corps of 100 field inspectors specifically for tugs, hoping to examine the entire fleet.
"Most mariners want the boats inspected because it will make them safer," said Joel Milton, a New York-based tug captain and columnist for WorkBoat Magazine. "Companies would be more inclined to fix things."
This article was written by CAIN BURDEAU of theAssociated Press published on HoumaToday.com
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090708/ARTICLES/907089881/1211?Title=Tugboat-pilot-plan-may-have-backfired-
Many personal injuries are the result of boating accidents or collisions. Some examples of injuries that result from boating accidents are cervical and lumbar sprains, herniated and ruptured discs, fractures, knee injuries, brain damage, and paralysis. Victims of boating accidents may recover for pain and suffering, medical expenses, property damage, lost wages and loss of earning capacity.
Don't Be A Victim Twice!
http://www.batonrougeinjuryaccidentattorney.com/boating%20accidents.html
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