Who’s Responsible for Maritime Injuries Caused by Defective Products or Equipment?

Each year, thousands of maritime workers are either injured or killed when the heavy equipment and machinery used aboard vessels, offshore oil rigs, or on the docks fails due to defective parts. When maritime workers become injured due to an ... read more

Will New OSHA Regulations Reduce Maritime Workers’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica?

Sandblasting, also known as abrasive blasting, is a commonly used technique to remove paint, and clean and prepare ship hulls, bulkheads, decks and tanks for paints and coatings during the repair and refurbishing process. Sandblasting produces ... read more

Maritime Chemists Help Prevent Accidents in the Enclosed Spaces aboard Vessels

Maritime chemists are leading efforts to make onboard working conditions safer, especially in the enclosed spaces aboard vessels. Whether it’s on the seas, in port, or in the shipyard, one of the most dangerous places to work onboard a vessel is ... read more

Year in Review: Top 10 Maritime News Events of 2018

2018 was an eventful year in the offshore and maritime industries. Disasters, court decisions, changing regulations and new technology all made the news this year. With so much going on it was difficult to make a decision, but after much ... read more

Why Do Collisions Between Vessels Still Take Place?

On November 8, the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate Helge Ingstad was returning from NATO exercises when it collided with the tanker Sola TS (Malta) in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen, Norway. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, but the Helge ... read more

15 People Rescued from Lift Boat off Louisiana Coast

A good Samaritan vessel helped the U.S. Coast Guard rescue 15 people from a liftboat that was taking on water early Monday morning off the Louisiana coast. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a report at approximately 3:16 a.m. from the Ram ... read more

Cargo Liquefaction May Be to Blame for the Loss of Several Cargo Vessels and Their Crews

The maritime industry is slowly becoming aware of the dangers that granular cargos present to ships and crews. Granular materials like mineral sands and crushed ores generally aren’t toxic, don’t catch fire, don’t explode and ... read more

Thirty Years after Piper Alpha: Could Disaster Strike Again?

July marked the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha explosion and fire, the worst oil rig disaster in history. While safety aboard offshore rigs have improved since then, some experts warn that more needs to be done to prevent another tragedy ... read more

A Company with a History of Boat Wrecks in Louisiana Adds Another One to the List

Marquette Transportation does it again — a crane mounted onto Marquette’s towboat Kristine Alexis slammed into the Sunshine Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. James Parish in the early morning hours of October 12. The collision ... read more

Emotional Distress and the Zone of Danger in Maritime Injury Litigation

After a maritime accident, PTSD and other emotional trauma can be just as serious of a health problem as a physical injury. Even a near miss accident — one in which a maritime worker genuinely feared for their life — can result in ... read more

Maritime Workers and PTSD

PTSD is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. Many people think of PTSD as something only war veterans ... read more

Marijuana Testing and Maritime Workers

Since the ’80s, many employers in the U.S. have made testing for marijuana and other illegal substances a regular part of their pre-employment screening process for new hires. For employees in security sensitive jobs such as maritime work, ... read more