The National Transportation Board has obviously been busy with the investigation of the EXXON VALDEZ grounding and oil spill as have a number of MEC Associates. The concerns about whether the Master was intoxicated or not are a familiar concern to the NTSB.
Their February Newsletter indicates a continuing campaign against boating-while-intoxicated (BWI). They are addressing the problem of recreational boat operators. More people are killed each year in recreational boating accidents (1036 in 1987) than in any other mode of transportation except motor vehicles. One third of the people killed were found to have a blood alcohol content of .10 percent or greater.
Since their 1983 safety study examining the involvement of alcohol in recreational boating accidents and recommending enactment of BWI laws, the number of states with such laws has risen from three to twenty five, and the Coast Guard has enacted regulations for the Federal Waters.
NTSB's latest report on BWI is now available from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161. The report should be identified as PB-88-917009.
Two NTSB accident reports have been published since our last newsletter.
The report on the collision between the overtaking Swedish Car Carrier FIGARO and the overtaken tanker CAMARGUE in the Galveston Bay entrance considers: risks taken by large vessels overtaking in channels; hazards posed by channel sloped bottoms and the bank effect, vessel hydrodynamic interaction, and nonuniform currents; pilot fatigue; and ongoing training for pilots.
The second report concerned the loss of the charter fishing boat COUGAR off the Oregon coast. It considered many issues including: lack of a requirement for an EPIRB and lights on life preservers when a boat is certificated for a route not more than 20 miles from a harbor of safe refuge; master fatigue; Coast Guard policy which allows inspected boats to operate as uninspected boats when carrying six or less passengers; adequacy of primary lifesaving equipment; and Coast Guard standards for pyrotechnic distress signals.
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