Coast Guard Investigating Fatal Barge-Fishing Boat Accident in Tennessee

The US Coast Guard is continuing its investigations into a fatal maritime accident involving nine barges and a fishing boat on the Tennessee River. The accident occurred over the weekend. The fishermen were on a boat when the vessel was struck by nine barges that were being towed by a tugboat. According to the sole surviving fisherman, the vessel had an engine problem, and was stuck in the path of the barges. They tried all they could to alert the boat crews to their predicament, but were unable to. The barges struck the fishing boat, capsizing the vessel and trapping the fishermen. The impact overturned the fishing boat trapping the man underneath. Only one of the fishermen survived the accident. He fisherman was able to swim out of the wreckage. The tugboat crews insist that they did not see the 16-foot motor boat, and were therefore, not able to blow the horn to warn the fishermen in time. The Coast Guard is specifically looking at whether the barge operator could have prevented this collision. The barges were owned and operated by a company called Serodino Inc. Maritime lawyer Brian Beckcom is a Board-Certified Trial Lawyer whose primary focus is the representation of Jones Act seamen, including tankermen, galley hands, deckhands, cruise line crews, fishing vessel crew members, offshore workers and other maritime workers in accidents in Texas, across the country and international waters.

Read more detail on Recent Admiralty Law Posts –

This entry was posted in Admiralty-Maritime Law and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply