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Posted in Barge Accidents,Louisiana Maritime News,Tug Boat Accidents on September 20, 2013
D & S Marine Service, based in Houma, Louisiana, has been sued by the Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District over a barge crash that occurred last year in September 2012 on the Mississippi River that smashed a tripod-like structure known as a “dolphin.”
Photo shows the tugboat M/V Ricky J. LeBoeuf owned by D & S Marine Service.
The lawsuit, which was filed in early September in the 23rd Judicial District Court in Ascension Parish, alleges a barge being pushed by the M/V Ricky J. LeBoeuf hit the center dolphin before dawn on Sept. 17, 2012. The LeBoeuf is owned & operated by D&S Marine.
The lawsuit alleges that the fresh water district sent D & S Marine a letter in October demanding it repair the dolphin but the company failed to comply.
According to the lawsuit, the dolphin was one of three that protect a water intake at the district’s Lemann pumping station on the Mississippi river in the Ascension Parish community of Smoke Bend near Donaldsonville. The district did file a report with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office the morning of the accident.
A district employee reported seeing a tugboat push three barges close to the bank, back up and continue upriver. It was then the employee noticed the dolphin was gone. The employee told a deputy the tugboat had a blue light on but could not be identified.
The suit asks the court to order D & S Marine to pay for all costs associated with the damaged dolphin & additional costs due to that damage, as well as court costs and fees.
Source: The Advocate
Blog post by barge injury lawyer Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP