Barge and Towboat Accidents: How They Happen and Who Is Responsible

Towing accidents have a way of happening where nobody is watching. A deckhand alone on the head of a tow at night. A pilot in the wheelhouse trying to line up on a bridge span with the river running high. A fleeting area at shift change. By the time an attorney is involved, the people who saw it have often moved on to other boats.

That makes the records, and knowing which ones matter, more important than in almost any other kind of maritime case. Here is where I start.

1. The tow itself

Before anything else, I want to know what the vessel was pushing or pulling. How many barges, loaded or empty, how they were arranged, and how they were tied together. The tow configuration drives almost everything else: how the vessel handles in current, how far the deckhands have to walk, how much wire is on deck, and how much room the pilot needs in a bend or a bridge approach.

A tow made up badly is a hazard before the boat ever leaves the fleet.

1. The water and the weather

River stage and current matter as much as wind does at sea. High water changes everything: faster current, less clearance under bridges, debris, and eddies around piers and lock approaches. I pull river gauge readings, weather records, and any high-water advisories that applied that day, then compare them with what the crew did. If the company had a high-water policy, that comes out too.

1. The watch and the crew

Towboat crews commonly work long hitches and split the day into six-hour watches. That schedule is legal and normal, but it leaves little room for real rest when the work runs over. I look at who was on watch, how long they had been up, what licenses they held, and whether the boat was manned the way its certificate required.

For deckhand injuries, I want to know how long the injured man had been on the job, what training he had for the task, and who was supervising him.

1. The company's towing safety management system

Since Subchapter M brought towing vessels under Coast Guard inspection, most operators have had to choose between annual Coast Guard inspections and running a Towing Safety Management System audited by a third party. Either way, there is a paper trail.

If the company chose the safety management route, its TSMS is a written statement of how it said it would operate. I compare it with what the logs, training records, and witnesses show. The gap between the two is often the case.

1. Lock and navigation records

For accidents near locks, the lock operator's records can fix the timing of events more precisely than the boat's own log. AIS data shows the vessel's track and speed, and often other vessels nearby. Radio traffic, if anyone kept it, can show what was said and when.

1. The gear

Wires, ratchets, kevels, timberheads, face wires, lock lines, hoses on tank barges. Deckhand injuries usually involve one of them. Photos taken right after the accident are worth more than any later inspection, because gear gets replaced quickly after someone is hurt.

The injuries I see most often

The patterns repeat. Deckhands hurt while making or breaking tow, often at night and often working alone. Falls between barges or off the edge of a barge. Injuries on lock walls handling lines while the tow is moving. Hand injuries in rigging. And on tank barges, injuries around hose handling during transfers.

None of these is unavoidable. Most of them trace back to a familiar set of questions: was there a plan for the job, was there enough help, was anyone watching, and did the crew know how to do it the way the company said it should be done?

Allisions and collisions

When a tow strikes a bridge, a dock, or a moored vessel, the analysis shifts to navigation. Speed for the conditions, the approach the pilot set up, whether he had enough horsepower for the tow in that current, and what he did once he knew he was in trouble. Moving vessels that strike stationary objects face a legal presumption of fault, which I discuss in a separate post on the Oregon Rule.

Why committee experience helps

I served on the Towing Safety Advisory Committee, which advises the Coast Guard on towing safety. That work does not replace years in a wheelhouse. It does mean I know why the towing rules read the way they do and what the industry and the Coast Guard expected when they were written. That context helps a judge or jury see whether a company met the standard or just met the minimum on paper.

About the author

Captain Mitchell S. Stoller is a Master Mariner Unlimited, former Exxon tanker master, and former Los Angeles Harbor pilot. About Captain Stoller