Employee #1, the operator of a tug, was moving his tug to the shelter side of a barge. The barge and two tugs were underway 20 minutes from a railroad cutoff, where they had been extracting old wood pilings, when they experienced heavy waves from the stern.
Employee #1 removed the port bow line from the barge. The release of the line caused the tug to drift away from the barge. Employee #1 attempted to regain control of the tug so that he could release the port stern line. However, due to the attached stern line while the barge was moving, the tug heeled over and took on water causing the tug to sink in 28 feet of water and drowning the operator.
What went wrong?
There isn’t enough information provided to give a definite answer. For one thing, the OSHA report doesn’t specify how many employees were on the tug. A minimum of three would have been necessary for the operations described—the operator needed to remain at the wheel, and two other employees should have coordinated the simultaneous release of the stern and bow lines that connected the tug to the barge. A loaded barge in motion can easily whip a tugboat around.
Although it’s implied that the heavy waves were unexpected, proper safety procedures are designed to handle unexpected circumstances—and prevent injury or death.
Republished from Marine Construction Magazine Issue V, 2022
