Jones Act Maritime Lawyer : Houston Jones Act & Maritime Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Arnold & Itkin Law Firm : Offshore Injury, Maritime Law : Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida

Tropical Storm Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to strengthen and could pose a serious threat to maritime activities along the Texas coast by midweek. The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane watch for the Texas coast from Brownsville northward to Port O'Connor. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the Texas coast from north of Port O'Connor to San Luis Pass.

MSNBC.com reports in Dolly drenches Yucatan, Texas could be next: Hurricane Watch issued for Texas coastline near Mexican border:

"Emergency officials across Texas are monitoring the storm's track and moving some resources toward the Corpus Christi area, NBC affiliate KPRC reported.

Shell evacuated about 125 personnel from some of its Gulf of Mexico West operations on Sunday, KPRC added. Another 60 people were expected to be evacuated on Monday.

The company said it does not expect Dolly to have an impact on its gulf production."

At 11:00 AM EDT today the center of Tropical Storm Dolly was located about 55 miles north-northeast of Progreso Mexico.  Dolly is moving toward the west-northwest near 18 mph. A gradual decrease in forward speed is forecast during the next couple of days with little change in the direction of motion.  On this track, Dolly will be approaching the coast of the western Gulf of Mexico by Wednesday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph with higher gusts. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles from the center. Strengthening is forecast and Dolly could become a hurricane by tomorrow.

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Texas seaman Ricci Anderson filed suit against Harvey Gulf International Marine and Diamond Offshore Drilling on July 14 in Jefferson County District Court.  Anderson was employed as a pilot with Sabine Pilots of Groves. 

On Oct. 21, 2007, Harvey Gulf was towing a semi-submersible drilling rig owned by Diamond Offshore. Anderson was called out to transfer onto the tugboat, the Harvey Thunder, to tow the drilling rig into the jetties.

"While in the process of transferring from the pilot boat onto the Harvey Thunder … the tugboat yawed and rocked causing plaintiff's arms to be jerked violently," the suit says. "Plaintiff was forced to grab onto handrails overhead - in the absence of a ladder, guide bar/guide rails and/or safety rod - to avoid falling between the vessels. As a result, plaintiff sustained severe injuries."

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In Texas, a seaman has filed a Jones Act lawsuit against Kirby Inland Marine for injuries he received more than two years ago while working aboard the vessel Creole Dee. The lawsuit alleged that "defendant was negligent and the vessel was unseaworthy."  According to the lawsuit, John R. McGee sustained severe and painful injuries to his left shoulder and other parts of his body

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The widow of a sailor who drowned during a boating accident has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the vessel.  The sailor, Roger Stone, was the safety officer aboard the SV Cynthia Woods during an offshore race.  He is credited with saving the lives of two Texas A&M student sailors at the cost of his own.

His widow, Linda Stone has filed a lawsuit against the designer, manufacturer and a company that repaired the racing yacht on which her husband died.  The civil complaint, filed by Linda Stone’s attorney, claims Cape Fear Yacht Works, boat designer Bruce Marek, Payco Inc. and Galveston Yacht Service are not cooperating with investigations into the accident. The lawsuit, filed in district court in Galveston County, also claims there are flaws in the boat’s design, manufacture and marketing.

Read more about the lawsuit and circumstances surrounding it in two separate articles:

Wife of Man Killed in A&M Boat Accident Files Lawsuit - Houston Fox26
Hero sailor’s wife to sue over probe - Galveston County Daily News

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Houston Jones Act lawyers Arnold & Itkin LLP filed suit against the owners and operators of the Seban, a ship used off the coast of Texas in operations in the Gulf of Mexico.  Plaintiffs seek damages for the wrongful death of Mr. Jimenez, who was killed when the Seban caught fire.  The Seban was owned and operated by Otto Candies LLC and was being chartered by Oceangraphia, a Mexican offshore company which owns a substantial part of its fleet in Houston Texas.  After the ship caught fire, over 150 workers were left in the water stranded because the satellite services provided failed.  Unfortunately, Mr. Jimenez died as a result of the defendants' negligence and neglect.

Continue Reading...

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Three seamen who died because of a lack of oxygen in a ship's compartment had failed to appreciate the possible dangers they faced, a report said. The men who were working to secure a rattling anchor chain in an enclosed space on the Viking Islay ship off the Yorkshire coast in 2007 failed to recognize the atmosphere would eventually become oxygen deficient.  According to a BBC article on the subject:

Marine Accident Investigation Branch experts recommended training changes. The marine accident experts added that the training and subsequent drills in the use of such devices "had not been sufficient to ensure the limitations of the equipment were recognised in an emergency".

And the document added: "The ship manager's company policy on entry into enclosed spaces was not clear and did not take into account scenarios that could require crews to enter confined spaces while at sea".

Gas monitoring equipment supplied to the vessel was unsuitable for ensuring safe entry into enclosed spaces, the experts concluded.

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The National Waterways Foundation (NWF) has released a new study comparing selected societal, environmental, and the safety impacts of utilizing inland river barge transportation to highway and rail transportation. Titled "A Modal Comparison of Freight Transportation Effects on the General Public," the study was conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute's Center for Port and Waterways at Texas A&M University and was cost-shared with the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd).

Among its findings, the study determines that, after adjusting for the differences in quantity of cargo moved by each mode, for each member of the public injured in a barge accident, 125.2 are injured in rail accidents and 2171.5 are injured in truck accidents. For fatalities, the rates are 155 trucking fatalities and 22.7 rail fatalities for every barge related fatality.

An executive summary of the study can be found here on the National Waterways Foundation website.

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Rig workers who whistleblow over safety issues are ‘routinely sacked’ reports Scotland's Sunday Herald.  According to the article:

"NORTH SEA OIL WORKERS WHO whistleblow about safety issues are routinely sacked, creating a 'culture of fear' 20 years after the Piper Alpha disaster, one of Scotland's leading trade unionists has claimed.

The STUC has warned the practice could result in another disaster similar to Piper Alpha, which suffered a serious fire after an explosion caused by a gas leak that ignited on July 6, 1988, killing 167 people in the world's worst off-shore tragedy."

The article underscores the point that even 20 years after the tragic disaster, much improvement is still needed in the area of safety for offshore rig workers and how reports of unsafe work conditions are handled.

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As reported in Tallahassee Democrat in Be cautious on the waters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) urges boaters to practice cautious behavior while boating on July 4th.  FWC especially advises boaters to wear life jackets all the time while boating.

According to statistics, boating accidents are usually caused by the operator's inattentiveness. Most boating accident fatalities are men, and most accidents involve a single vessel. The FWC's Boating and Waterways Section reports 27 fatalities so far this year. Eighteen of these deaths were attributed to drowning, and many could have been prevented had the victim been wearing a life jacket.

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