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Maritime injury risks and legal solutions by Andrea Cumurciuc
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Maritime injury risks and legal solutions |
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Law
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Injuries on seas or navigable inland waters occur just as often as they do on the mainland. Crew members, officers, passengers, fishermen, dockworkers or individuals working on oil rigs are exposed to a wide range of injury possibilities. The frequency of maritime accidents can be well seen from the U.S. Coast Guard’s annual report: each year they respond to more than 25,000 cases, which result in around 800 deaths and $ 120 million property damage. The main problem regarding these accidents is that when they do occur the consequences are often devastating: individuals involved suffer severe injuries and lifelong disabilities if not even wrongful death. The severity of cases is often aggravated by the fact that proper medical assistance is not available on vessels and patients will not get to a hospital in time due to considerable distances. The most common types of maritime accidents include capsizing, collisions, crushing accidents, explosions, fires, overboard and sinking accidents. Individuals involved in such events end up with various injuries including fractures, brain and spinal cord damages, burns, lost limbs and disfiguration. However it doesn’t have to be a major accident for individuals to be injured at sea. Probably the most common cause of maritime injuries is slip and fall accidents. They occur due to slippery decks, poor illumination or agitated waters and can have just as serious consequences as other accident types. Another quit frequent maritime injury type consists in toxicity or food poisoning. All these incidents have of course different causes but in around 70% of them human error plays a major role. Besides negligence, recklessness and inexperience, equipment malfunction and harsh weather conditions can often be blamed. However in some cases establishing the exact cause of the incident might be difficult, like in the case of the explosion that took place on the 12 July 2012 aboard a tanker anchored in Rosia Bay. The 28,000 tonne tanker was taking fuel from a bunker tanker at the time of the incident. The sound of the blast was heard across town and witnesses could see the black smoke rising from the ship. The emergency services responded immediately but fortunately nobody was injured in the incident. The cause of the explosion was an auxiliary steam boiler, which theoretically should have been working properly. Although this accident didn’t result in considerable damages or loss of human life, it reveals how easily maritime injuries can occur. When they happen, people involved should know how to react. Regardless the statute of the person, all individuals injured on seas, after receiving appropriate medical assistance should contact a maritime attorney. Accidents that occur on seas or navigable inland waters are treated based on other laws and regulations. They are not simply personal injury cases. That is why a specialized attorney should handle them. Things are even more complicated when the injured person is a maritime employee. According to federal law all employees who suffered work related accidents can be compensated based on Worker’s Compensation. But maritime employees are privileged from this point of view. They are under the incidence of the Jones Act, a set of laws that allow maritime workers to sue their employers in case of severe injuries occurred due to unsafe working environment. If the injury was the result of a ship owner’s, operator’s, or crew member’s negligence, if it occurred because of an unseaworthy vessel or malfunctioning equipment, victims will have a valid legal claim. So all injured maritime employees or family members of the deceased ones should contact an admiralty lawyer to investigate the circumstances of the accident and take the appropriate legal measures.
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maritime injuries, admiralty lawyer,
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