EXPLOSION OF AIR COMPRESSOR TANK IN A TUGBOAT SEVERELY INJURES WORKER; CASE SETTLED FOR $7.5 MILLION

EXPLOSION OF AIR COMPRESSOR TANK IN A TUGBOAT SEVERELY INJURES WORKER; CASE SETTLED FOR $7.5 MILLION

We have reported previously on exploding air compressor tanks here:

CAUSE OF EXPLOSION OF AIR COMPRESSOR TANKS

https://sites.google.com/site/metropolitanforensics/cause-of-explosion-of-air-compressor-tanks

Although manufacturing defects can caused a tank to explode, the leading cause of air compressor tank rupture is corrosion of the tank from water condensate, lack of maintenance, and ineffective or inoperable relief valves. Basically these types of incidents are caused by failure to follow the operation and maintenance procedures listed in the owner’s manual for that particular equipment.

A Puerto Rican seaman has been awarded a record $7.5 million settlement for injuries sustained in an air tank explosion as he worked to repair a tugboat in Alton, Illinois. Perez-Mossetty was working as a merchant mariner and welder aboard the tugboat Alejandro on the Mississippi River in July 2009. Perez-Mossetty says he was in the boat’s engine room standing beside an air accumulator tank while a fellow employee was welding pipes.

On Tuesday, November 19, 2014, Edward Perez-Mossetty of Cayey, Puerto Rico, and defendants American Tugs, Inc., American Tugs and Barges Inc. and The American Boat Company reached the settlement in a Jones Act lawsuit filed in Madison County in 2010. This is a record Illinois Jones Act recovery, according to John Kirkton, editor of the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter.

According to a release, Perez-Mossetty, then 37, suffered serious neck and back injuries in an explosion aboard the MV Alejandro in 2009 while it was docked for restoration and repairs in Alton. His injuries have been diagnosed as “incomplete quadriplegia, with multiple spinal fractures.” Perez-Mossetty was in the engine room of the boat when the air tank exploded. He was thrown into the air and landed on his neck. The lawsuit alleged that American Tugs and the American boat company were liable for Perez-Mossetty’s injuries under the Jones Act, general maritime law and common law negligence. The American Boat Company had installed the accumulator tank without working pressure relief valves or drains.

Apparently, MV Alejandro was a WW II boat that had been converted into a tugboat – negligently so, based on the explosion of the air tank. See the article below from 2010. Alejandro, is what is left of the former U.S. Navy tug Allegheny (ATA-179) built in 1944 towards the end of World War II. After initial deployment in the South Pacific, the tug served in the Navy for almost 25 years before undergoing conversions for alternate uses. For close to a decade, it was a training vessel for the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. Allegheny was originally a diesel-electric, single-screw vessel with overall length of 143 feet and displacement of 835 tons. Today the vessel is considerably lighter, having lost about 30 feet of hull and carrying a much lighter complement of equipment, machinery and crew.

The lawsuit alleged that the air accumulator tank that exploded aboard the Alejandro was being operated without a pressure relief valve or a working drain valve on the day of the explosion. Investigations by the Coast Guard, OSHA and the Illinois Boiler Inspector revealed that the tank was being operated without a working pressure relief valve and had thinned and pitted due to rusting caused by water accumulation. These agencies later cited the defendant American Tugs. The suit further alleged that the faulty tank was installed in the Alejandro several years prior to the accident, providing the defendants with ample notice and opportunity to place pressure relief and drain valves.

The regulatory agencies also found that on the day of the accident, employees were operating the tank on manual because the compressor kept shutting off. When running on automatic, the compressor would shut off at a certain pressure to avoid overloading the tank with compressed air. However on manual, pressure was allowed to build-up with no relief and eventually exploded, similar to blowing up a balloon until it pops, the release said.

“Edward’s tragic injuries were a result of unsafe conditions and negligence on the part of the boat owner and its employees,” said John Perconti, of Levin & Perconti in Chicago, who co-represented Perez-Mossetty. “As a result of the injuries he sustained in the accident, Edward suffered a neck injury causing him to suffer partial paralysis with serious motor and sensory impairments,” said Michael Bonamarte, who also represented . “This means that he has limited feeling and movement. He underwent surgery and extensive rehabilitation for months, neither of which were able to rehabilitate or restore him to his prior condition.

“Today, Edward requires assistance to walk,” added Margaret. “He is dependent upon others for assistance with daily activities. In addition to losing his independence, Edward is in constant pain and will never work again. Edward will require medical care and treatment and assistive devices for the rest of his life, along with physical and occupational therapy. The $7.5 million settlement will allow Edward to receive these necessary services and care, and will also provide for him and his family since he can no longer earn an income.”

The original complaint filed in 2010 was asking for $45.7 million to pay for injuries, the loss of enjoyment of life and court costs.

Puerto Rico towing company augments its fleet with conversions of older tugs

The newest tractor-style tugboat about to appear on the south coast of Puerto Rico is a former World War II Navy tug recently reduced in size and converted to z-drive propulsion by local entrepreneur Pedro F. Rivera, founder of American Tugs Inc., based in Yabucoa.

Rivera, who has already brought back to life half a dozen former U.S. inland river towboats and workboats, was putting the finishing touches on his latest conversion at a shipyard in Alton, Ill., in mid-June. The tug, now with twin azimuthing z-drive propellers, was due to make its inaugural voyage to Puerto Rico, by way of New Orleans, in mid-summer.

Rivera calls it his own entrepreneurial form of recycling.

The newly-named convert, Alejandro, is what is left of the former U.S. Navy tug Allegheny (ATA-179) built in 1944 towards the end of World War II. After initial deployment in the South Pacific, the tug served in the Navy for almost 25 years before undergoing conversions for alternate uses. For close to a decade, it was a training vessel for the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. Allegheny was originally a diesel-electric, single-screw vessel with overall length of 143 feet and displacement of 835 tons. Today the vessel is considerably lighter, having lost about 30 feet of hull and carrying a much lighter complement of equipment, machinery and crew.

The tug, originally much more ship-like in appearance, was constructed for the Navy at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., which is, itself, a story of historic entrepreneurial success. The Orange, Texas, shipyard was established by Irish immigrant Samuel Levingston in the 1850s. Many decades later it evolved into the Far East Levingston Shipbuilding (FELS) now a part of the international maritime group Keppel FELS, based in Singapore.

Work on Alejandro's renovation and conversion was done at American Boat Inc. in Alton and at National Maintenance & Repair, in Hartford, Ill. Rivera has also made use of his own employees working on this and other vessels at the shipyard.

Rivera, a former manager for Crowley Maritime in San Juan, got started with his own business in the early 1990s. At first he competed against his former employer and others in San Juan, and then he relocated to the south coast of Puerto Rico. Rivera already has one other z-drive vessel in his fleet of nine tugs plus a 250-foot deck barge. That tug, Marilyn R., is a former Mississippi River workboat converted to offshore towing capability and upgraded with z-drives at the same Illinois shipyard in 2004. Rivera acquired that former Navy tug in 2006 when it was in disrepair and near-abandonment in Puerto Rico. Soon after, one of his tugs was dispatched to tow it to Illinois for an extended refurbishment project.

Alejandro, in its current configuration, will be the sixth z-drive tug operating in Puerto Rico, although other tugs have come and gone from previous charters and assignments. In addition to these two American Tug tractors, the others are Hector P., operated by South Puerto Rico Towing; Don Alfredo, operated by Harbor Bunkering in San Juan; Z-One operated by Great Lakes Towing's Puerto Rico Towing & Barge Co., and at least one z-drive tug typically kept in San Juan by McAllister Towing and Transportation.

Alejandro, newly outfitted with twin EMD 16-645 diesels and Schottel z-drives, can turn in a reported 3,900 hp with bollard pull in excess of 55 tons, according to Rivera. The blue-hulled tug has a robust appearance with high bulwarks, raised fo'c's'le deck, elevated pilothouse and plenty of deck gear on both ends to handle a variety of assignments. The tug also has substantial firefighting capability, with a Skum monitor above the pilothouse, as befitting a tug that will frequently be assisting LNG tankers into the berths at nearby Guayanilla.

Kelly Sprague of Design Associates Inc., in New Orleans, was project engineer for the conversion. He said approximately 30 feet was cut from the stern, with a new flat bottom, sloping down at about a 19° angle extended forward and down to meet the original keel. A small skeg was attached to that flat bottom section, with z-drives installed just aft of the skeg. While most of the rest of the hull was left untouched, all of the machinery spaces were gutted and much of the tankage was refurbished or altered. The current tugboat retains its original round-bilge configuration forward of amidships.

Rivera said the tug, with both z-drive and offshore capability, will fulfill a variety of local, coastwise and offshore opportunities within its operating area. He said total costs of the project for Alejandro will be close to $3 million.

"I think that is a pretty good price," he said, "especially if you compare it to the costs of some tugs being built today in the range of $10 million or more."

Significant clients and assignments of American Tugs consist of assisting barges in and out of the Shell refinery at the southeastern Puerto Rican town of Yabucoa, assisting LNG tankers in and out of the gas-fired power plant in Guayanilla Bay, and assisting ships and tugs at several other coal or oil fired power plants on the south coast. At the LNG facility, which has been operating since 2000, American Tugs operates in partnership with South Puerto Rico Towing, which operates the ASD tractor Hector P., and Svitzer Americas, the international towage company supplying logistical and technical support for marine operations. Guayanilla, towards the western end of the south coast, is Puerto Rico's second busiest port, after San Juan.

Aside from his LNG work in Guayanilla, Rivera said his tugs mostly operate towards the eastern end of the island, with little competition since most of the harbors have fairly low maritime volume. His tugs, he said, are engaged in a variety of coastwise and offshore assignments, while his 250-foot deck barge, Thor III, is employed transporting up to 5,000 tons of construction equipment, building supplies, scrap steel and other heavy items around the Caribbean.

Rivera reported that he had to use another tug in his fleet as collateral to finance the purchase of ASD drives for Alejandro. That tug, on paper at least, had little intrinsic value at the start of the project, other than its historic significance.

Rivera anticipates that Alejandro will be a versatile vessel for terminal operations and a capable towing vessel and salvage tug. It has ASD maneuverability and a heavy windlass on the bow with two anchors, plus hawser winch, towing winch, capstan and towing bar across the stern. The tug also has 5,300-gpm firefighting capability, with a Nijhuis fire pump directly powered by a 16V-92 Detroit Diesel engine and the Skum monitor aloft. Also in the engine room are a pair of 8V-71 Detroit Diesel generators producing 100 kW each of auxiliary power.

On deck, Alejandro retains some original Almon Johnson equipment, including the dual-drum anchor windlass and the aft capstan, both now repowered to hydraulic. Just aft of the anchor windlass forward is a JonRie InterTech hawser winch with 350,000 pounds of braking power and 450 feet of 7-inch circumference braided line. The aft towing winch has been converted to a hydraulic package by JonRie InterTech. A 100-hp electric motor drives a pump to supply central hydraulic power.

Navigation gear aboard the reconfigured tug includes Furuno NavNet radar, JRC AIS and heading sensor, Standard Horizon VHF radios, Simrad autopilot and electrical control panels provided by Bass Products.

Rivera, 52, owns American Tugs Inc. together with his wife Marilin Hernandez, who helps operate the office. He said he is proud to have two sons working with him, including his eldest, Pedro F. Rivera Jr., a graduate of Texas Maritime Academy, and his youngest, Alejandro Rivera, assisting with day-to-day operations. The youngest son is the namesake for the newest tug.

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