A bill has been introduced before the US Congress designed to reform the 170-year-old regulation that limits maritime accident compensation. The effort is being led by California’s Congressman Salud Carbajal and Senator Dianne Feinstein and has been written to be retroactive to cover the 2019 fire aboard the dive boat Conception, which killed 34 people off the California coast.
The Carbajal-Feinstein bill updates an 1851 law that can prevent maritime accident victims and their families from receiving compensation from those responsible for the accident. Under the terms of the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851, boat owners can limit their liability tothe value of the vessel after the accident. The sponsors of the new bill said according to the current legislation the owner of the Conception dive boat may not be held financially liable for any losses incurred as a result of the fire – including loss of life – because the boat had no value after it was destroyed. The Conception was declared a total loss after the 2019 fire. Continue reading “New US bill proposes reforming liability for maritime accident compensation”
The potential catastrophic impact arising from the deterioration of abandoned cargo cannot be disregarded as a remote risk. However, the considerable costs accruing from container demurrage, detention, storage and disposal regularly result from cargo that, for a variety of reasons, is no longer required by the original receiver or consignee, and is simply abandoned at a port terminal or cargo facility. Increased risks of safety and regulatory infraction are inevitably consequent, as well as significant demand on management and operational resources to resolve individual cases. 
During an annual lifeboat safety inspection it was discovered that the on-load cable release could not easily be moved, and the release lever required extreme force to operate. The forward hook cable release also did not operate properly. A replacement cable release arrangement was procured locally, and repeated tests were conducted to confirm that it was once again fully operational.
As training onboard holds a positive and important role in the development and promotion of shipboard safety culture and to further bolster the Club’s hard and soft copy loss prevention publications, they are undertaking the production of a new loss prevention video series.
