OCEAN MONARCH

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Report: Fatigue cause of grounding accident

The Transportation Safety board cited crew fatigue as a cause in a report involving the "Ocena Monarch" bottom touch while towing a barge loaded with cement south of Kitimat in July 2017. The report said the vessel’s lone mate on watch duty fell asleep as the tug remained on auto pilot through Royal Channel’s confined waters. The master and deck hand were asleep below deck and the vessel's navigational alarms were off. The report concluded the mate likely fell asleep as a result of acute fatigue from previous night shifts, chronic sleep disruptions and the monotonous workload in the wheel house. There were no reports of injuries or pollution, but the tug’s hull and propeller sustained damage. The tug’s operator had no strategies in place to mitigate a tired crew despite a previous occurrence in 2011 where fatigue played a role. The board has highlighted employee fatigue as a major safety hazard in the marine, rail and air transport industries. Last May, the board recommended mandatory fatigue-awareness education for vessel operators in a report on the sinking of the tug "Nathan E. Stewart", which spilled about 110,000 litres of diesel into the water off B.C.’s central coast.

Tug secured tug

The "Ocean Monarch" secured the pusher tug "Skeena Coast", 150 gt (IMO: 5249871) and its barge at Blubber Bay, British Columbia on Nov 13, 2018. The "Skeena Coast" was disabled due to an engine failure while towing a chip barge in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, in position 049 44 10.8 N, 124 50 07.2 W at 6.35 a.m.