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Jones Act and Maritime News

$1.25 million awarded to family of Navy teen against tug operator

A federal court has ruled that a tug operator - and the U.S. Navy - is at fault for the death of a Navy man in a James River, Virginia accident.

19-year-old Freddie Porter, Jr. of New Jersey was killed while conducting training exercises aboard a Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (“RHIB”) near Jamestown Island on the evening of October 11, 2007. A tug pushing eight barges ran over the RHIB, knocking the enlisted seaman into the water below the 600 foot long flotilla. While the other crew members managed to swim safely away, Porter was killed by the tug’s propellers.

After a four day trial that concluded late last week, Judge Henry Coke Morgan, Jr. of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled the Navy to be at fault for providing an inexperienced and “incompetent(ly) crew” on the RHIB. Also cited was Vulcan Materials Company, the tug’s owner-operator, for failing to post a proper lookout on the forward barge.

The Navy was ruled to be 80-percent responsible and Vulcan 20-percent responsible. While sovereign immunity protects the military from paying the victim’s family, Vulcan was ordered to compensate them $1,250,000.

According to a lawyer for the family, the ruling establishes a responsibility for tug operators to post lookouts to avoid collisions.

“I am hopeful that changes will be made soon in the tugboat industry that will better protect small boats on rivers so that no other parent has to needlessly suffer what we are going through," said Cassita Massiah, the victim’s mother.

Source: PR Newswire

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