At least seven people were killed in four accidents on New Jersey roadways Saturday, marking one of the deadliest 24-hour spans on New Jersey roads in years.

 JULY 12, 2015

NEW JERSEY 

At least seven people were killed in four accidents on New Jersey roadways Saturday, marking one of the deadliest 24-hour spans on New Jersey roads in years.

Most were on interstate highways, one involved an attempted police stop, and at least one involved an intoxicated driver, police said. 

"It was a rough day yesterday," said Sgt. Jeff Flynn of the State Police. "It's not something that we typically see." 

The tragic day began at 1:30 a.m. when three people — a man, a woman and a child — were killed in a crash on Route 80 in Rockaway Township. One person was charged with death by auto and DWI, police said. 

In Atlantic County, two passengers were killed in a head-on crash on State Highway 49 in Estell Manor around 7 p.m. The victims, Joseph Kunak and Suzanne Tolley, were both from Pennsylvania. 

An hour and 45 minutes later and half the state away, State Police tried to stop a Honda for driving erratically on Interstate 78 in Berkeley Heights, authorities said. The driver fled, and police followed for about three miles before the Honda ran off the road into a wooded area, killing two people, police said. A short time later, a pedestrian in the area was struck and seriously injured by a car, State Police said. 

Also on Saturday, a motorcyclist who had crashed on Memorial Drive late Friday night was pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center at 5:45 a.m. 

According to a State Police report on Saturday morning, traffic fatalities are down in 2015 compared to 2014, and about on par for 2013. It's not clear if the Rockaway Township accident is included in that calculation. So far this year, 262 people were killed in 249 accidents, the State Police report said — that's a little over one person killed every day. As of this time in 2014, 279 people had been killed. In 2013, 261 were killed in New Jersey road accidents as of July 11. 

Auto fatalities are at historic lows; in 1981, 1,160 people were killed on New Jersey roads. 

The most recent comparable day on New Jersey roads occurred in August 2014, when six people were killed in accidents on New Jersey roads. 


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2014 N.J. traffic deaths spike after 2013 record low

New Jersey State Police investigate a fatal motor vehicle accident on 295 south in Logan Township, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014. (Joe Warner | South Jersey Times)

  By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 01, 2015 at 8:00 AM, updated January 02, 2015 at 12:48 AM

WOODBRIDGE, NJ

The number of pedestrians killed by cars in New Jersey spiked in 2014, throwing 2013’s record low figure into reverse.

As of Wednesday morning, State Police reported 563 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2014, 21 more than the year before, when overall fatalities reached their lowest point since the agency began keeping records in the 1940s.
Of the 563 people killed on New Jersey roads, 169 were pedestrians, up 28 percent from 2013, according to State Police statistics. Roughly half of those victims were older than 50, while seven were under 16 years old, and 33 were between 17 and 29.

At the same time, fewer drivers, passengers and bicyclists were killed on the road. The majority of fatalities, 301, were drivers, 80 were passengers and 13 were bicyclists.

The number of fatal crashes also increased from 508 in 2013 to 530 in 2014.
The traffic death toll has oscillated from year to year — dipping as low as 542 in 2013 and climbing to 627 in 2011 — but has been trending downward for two decades.

“Some years it’s going to be a little higher than others,” State Police Spokeswoman Trooper Alina Spies said Wednesday. “We hope the larger trend continues to be a downward slope. But that depends on our drivers out there.”

That decline — down from 1,160 in 1981, the high point of the past three decades — can be attributed to increased safety features and safety campaigns urging drivers to make good decisions, Spies said.

Throughout the holidays State Police have stepped up patrols across the state on New Year’s Eve to look for people driving impaired, aggressive or speeding.
Five people were killed over Thanksgiving weekend, between Nov. 26 and Dec. 1, including a pedestrian and bicyclist, Spies said. 

There were nine fatalities over Christmas, the period from Dec. 24 to 29, including five pedestrians.

These statistics are preliminary and could change if people involved in 2013 accidents die during the new year. Later this year the agency will release a more detailed analysis of the accidents — for instance how many involved speeding, distracted driving or drinking.

A State Police report on the 504 crashes in 2013 in which 542 people were killed found driver inattention was a top factor in 164 deadly crashes, alcohol was a factor in 143, and speed was a factor in 82.

A driver suffered a leg injury after a garbage truck he was standing on top of rolled into a retention pond and flipped onto its side in West Orange, New Jersey

 

JULY 13, 2015

WEST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY


A driver suffered a leg injury after a garbage truck he was standing on top of rolled into a retention pond and flipped onto its side, town officials said Monday. 

A Gaeta Recycling Company driver was standing on top of a truck parked on Mt. Pleasant Avenue Monday morning when it started rolling down a hill and into a retention pond, West Orange spokeswoman Susan Anderson said Monday. The driver jumped off of the truck as it was rolling, she said. 

A truck rolled into a retention pond in West Orange Monday, officials confirmed. (Photo courtesy West Orange) 

 

The driver was transported to St. Barnabas Medical Center with a leg injury sustained during the jump, Anderson said. 

It is unclear why the driver was standing on the truck.

Authorities said they are still investigating whether the truck's brakes failed, or were improperly set. Gaeta, which town officials said was not in the area on municipal business, declined to comment on the incident.

The incident apparently happened on or near the Summit Medical Group property in West Orange. The group did not answer a call for comment.

Diesel and hydraulic fuel spilled in the area as a result of the accident, Anderson said. A Nutley hazmat crew and the DEP responded to the scene to clean the spills, she said.

New York City reaches $5.9 million settlement in chokehold death case of Eric Garner

JULY 13, 2015

By COLLEEN LONG and DEEPTI HAJELA 

NEW YORK, NY (AP) — 

The family of a black man who died after being placed in a white police officer's chokehold reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city on Monday, days before the anniversary of his death.

Eric Garner's family in October filed a notice of claim, the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city, asking for $75 million.

Garner, who was 43, was stopped last July 17 outside a Staten Island convenience store because police officers believed he was selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. A video shot by an onlooker shows Garner telling the officers to leave him alone and refusing to be handcuffed.

Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed his arm around Garner's neck to take him down. Garner, who had asthma, is heard gasping "I can't breathe!" 11 times before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead later at a hospital.

The city medical examiner found the police chokehold contributed to Garner's death. But a grand jury declined to indict the officer in the death. A federal probe is ongoing.

Chokeholds are banned by New York Police Department policy. Pantaleo says he used a legal takedown maneuver known as a seatbelt, not a chokehold.

Garner's death sparked demonstrations and became a flashpoint in a national debate about relations between police and minority communities.

 

FILE - In this July 7, 2015, file photo, Gwen Carr holds a picture of her son Eric Garner 

 

While the city has a legal department that fields lawsuits, the comptroller's office also can settle claims. Comptroller Scott Stringer has made a point of doing that in civil rights cases, saying that resolving them quickly saves the city money on legal fees.

"Following a judicious review of the claim and facts of this case, my office was able to reach a settlement with the estate of Eric Garner that is in the best interests of all parties," Stringer said.

The city did not admit any liability.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said that hopefully Garner's family "can find some peace and finality" from the settlement.

"By reaching a resolution, family and other loved ones can move forward even though we know they will never forget this tragic incident," said de Blasio, who was scheduled to speak Tuesday at a church memorial service in Garner's honor.

Longtime civil rights attorney Jonathan Moore, the family's lawyer, said there also was a settlement with the Richmond University Medical Center, which responded to the scene. That settlement is confidential, and there was no one available at the hospital to comment. Moore said there would be a press conference Tuesday with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the family.

Sharpton said the settlement to the family was deserved but didn't resolve the larger questions around policing and minorities. He said a rally planned for Saturday calling for an expedited federal investigation into Garner's death would go on as planned.

"We did not march and build a movement just to get money," he said.

The city has reached settlements in other high-profile cases involving deaths of black men at the hands police officers. In 2004, the city agreed to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Amadou Diallo, who was shot by four police officers in 1999.

In 2010, the city agreed to pay $3.25 million to the estate of Sean Bell, who was killed in 2006 outside a strip club while leaving his bachelor party. Police had targeted the club for an undercover operation.

In January, the city settled with the family of teenager Ramarley Graham, who was shot by a police officer in 2012, for $3.9 million.

Last month, the comptroller's office agreed to pay $6.25 million to a man who spent nearly 25 years in prison before being exonerated in a killing that happened while he was more than 1,000 miles away vacationing at Disney World. A $6.4 million settlement was reached with a man exonerated in the 1990 killing of a rabbi.

Stringer also agreed to a $2.25 million payout to the family of a mentally ill inmate who died in a Rikers Island jail cell that sweltered to 101 degrees because of a malfunctioning heating system, and he helped put together a $17 million settlement in the case of three half-brothers who spent a combined 60 years in prison before their convictions were thrown out.

Commercial Warehousing Inc., a Refrigeration company, puts temporary and permanent workers at risk of ammonia exposure due to poor maintenance of coolant systems

July 13, 2015

Commercial Warehousing Inc., a Refrigeration company, puts temporary and permanent workers at risk of ammonia exposure due to poor maintenance of coolant systems

Employer name: Commercial Warehousing Inc. 

Inspection site: 102 Industrial Boulevard, Winter Haven, Florida 33880

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the employer citations on July 10, 2015. The January 2015 inspection was initiated as part of the agency's National Emphasis Program for Chemical Plants*.

Inspection findings: OSHA cited the refrigeration warehousing company for 13 safety violations, including one willful violation, for failing to follow the industry recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices for insulation removal and for failing to test the ammonia refrigeration system piping and pressure vessels. 

Twelve additional serious violations involve failing to maintain accurate and complete piping and instrument diagrams of the ammonia refrigeration systems, not completing actions items on the process safety hazard analysis and not training permanent and temporary workers on the emergency evacuation plan and alarm system for fire and ammonia releases. 

Commercial Warehousing employs temporary workers from two staffing agencies, Certitemp and PRT Staffing. The staffing companies do not supervise employees. Commercial Warehousing is in charge of managing and has direct control of the temporary workers. OSHA did not issue citations to the staffing agencies.

Proposed penalties: $116,100

Quote: "Exposure to high levels of ammonia in the air can be irritating to the skin, eyes, throat and lungs. Lung damage and death may occur after exposure to very high concentrations of ammonia," said Les Grove, OSHA's area director in Tampa. "Commercial Warehousing has known for several years that testing of the refrigeration piping and pressure vessels was not being done as specified in company maintenance policy but management chose to downplay the seriousness of the hazard due to cost, and in the process, risked the lives and health of its workers." 

The citations can be viewed at: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/CommercialWarehousingInc_1019448.pdf* 

Commercial Warehousing refrigerates various food products and citrus extract/oils and employs approximately 200 workers. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, losses of an eye, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers; the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Tampa Area Office at 813-626-1177.

D&D Manufacturing in El Paso, Texas ignores worker safety repeatedly, allows operation of defective press. With long history of violations the company faces more than $321K in federal fines .

U.S. Department of Labor | July 13, 2015

With long history of violations, El Paso, Texas, company faces more than $321K in federal fines.

  D&D Manufacturing ignores worker safety repeatedly, allows operation of defective press

EL PASO, Texas - 

With a history of safety violations dating back 15 years, an El Paso metal stamping plant is no stranger to warnings from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

OSHA issued 13 safety and health citations to D&D Manufacturing Inc. today following a recent inspection prompted by a formal complaint. The inspection identified 13 safety and health citations for exposing workers to amputations and other serious injuries from unsafe machinery, including a violation for ignoring the danger of allowing employees to work with a defective 500-pound metal press that the company knew had repeatedly dropped without warning. 

Completed under OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on Amputations*, the inspection resulted in $321,750 in proposed department fines for D&D. This inspection follows one in December 2014 that resulted in 36 federal citations for serious safety violations. 

“D&D is aware of the dangers at its production facility, but has done nothing to correct them. An employee could have been seriously injured,” said Diego Alvarado Jr., OSHA’s area director in El Paso. “There is no reason, or excuse for a company to ignore basic safety requirements.”

OSHA cited the company for four willful, one repeated, six serious and two other violations. In addition to allowing workers to use the defective press, D&D did not ensure that employees on the production floor wore appropriate eye protection, given the risk of flying metal particles blinding them. 

Additionally, the company failed to make sure employees used hearing protection in areas where noise levels were above the acceptable limits. The repeated violation was for failing to have all illuminated exit signs lit.

View the citations at https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/D_D_Manufacturing_1018388_0710_15.pdf*

D&D Manufacturing fabricates stamped, metal components for equipment manufacturers. The company has headquarters in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and employs about 37 workers in El Paso. It also has a facility in Mexico. D&D has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s El Paso area director, or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s El Paso Area Office at 915-534-6251.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

Safety at Sea: safety incentive/bonus programs are a great tool that you can use to encourage your employees to be safe

Safety and the Law Collide on the Water

By Larry DeMarcay

 

Monday, July 13, 2015, 2:17 PM

 

We all can agree that the safety of our employees is critical; if not the most important concern of each of our companies. 

Our marine-based employees face day-to-day perils that are not encountered by the average American office worker. It is our duty to do everything that we can to ensure that each of our employees returns safely to his or her family once their hitch is over. Our industry has made great strides in improving safety over the years by utilizing improved training programs, safety policies and safety programs. All of these initiatives combine to create a maritime culture that embraces safety, and one that is unquestionably better today than it was just a few decades past.  

Many safety programs utilize a safety bonus/incentive system to reward employees who operate in a safe manner. Although each plan is slightly different, virtually all plans provide some sort of bonus to the members of a vessel crew when a certain period of time elapses without a reportable lost time accident. Incentivizing safety is a great idea: it goes a long way towards keeping the crew members focused on safety, moves safety away from being purely an individual concern and passes responsibility to the entire crew. No one can disagree with the aspirations of such a program. 
Safety with Caveats
 
Although safety bonus/incentive programs go a long way to motivate employees to operate in a safe manner, there are several concerns you should consider while designing or modifying such a program. These concerns include the potential for incentivizing the repression of incident reporting, the potential that employees could intimidate an injured employee from reporting an accident, or having the crew misclassify potential accidents in the hope of preserving safety bonuses.  

You do not want to discourage employees from reporting an incident or give them any discretion in determining whether or not to report an incident. It is very important that crew members timely report all injuries, illnesses, incidents, and near misses to their supervisors. Not only does this allow management to properly monitor risks for the purposes of making operations safer, it is also important that employees receive proper medical attention quickly, before their injuries become worse due to continuing to work aboard the vessel.

Although it may not make sense, employees may decide not to report their accidents in an effort to preserve the safety bonus record. No one wants to be the employee who took his focus off the job and suffered an injury, much less the employee who costs the entire crew a safety award. Based upon this incentive, employees may not be motivated to timely report injuries.
 
This is exactly the type of behavior that the safety program does not want to encourage. Thus, any safety bonus/incentive program must take into account incident reporting as a required component and should provide some leeway where a minor reportable incident or illness may not cause the crew to lose a bonus. Thus, encouraging the reporting of incidents, illnesses or near misses for all events can create a culture of reporting that will make incident reporting second nature and not something that can be balanced against the desire to receive a bonus.

Employee intimidation is a potential problem when other employees could persuade an injured crew member from reporting the incident. Unfortunately, it is possible that other crew members will remind the injured crew member that reporting the incident will cost all of them the bonus. Essentially, they could try to shame the injured employee from reporting the incident to management. 
 

This pressure can keep employees from timely reporting incidents and receiving appropriate medical care. Additionally, lack of timely reporting also prevents the company from conducting a proper investigation to determine what occurred. Again, any safety bonus program should attempt to minimize this pressure.
Another area of potential abuse is the improper classification of incidents.  It is possible that an employee may suffer an injury while working aboard the vessel and report that he sustained an injury that was not “work related” when in fact the accident certainly was. The employee will allege that this non-work related injury manifested itself while he was in the service of the ship and request maintenance and cure.

 At the same time, the vessel’s safety record remains intact. Although the crew member will usually receive the required medical care under this scenario, the company loses the opportunity to conduct an investigation and determine the cause of the incident, thus, losing the opportunity to make its operation safer. Furthermore, after the bonus is paid and the injured employee retains an attorney, he could change his story, report that the injury is work related and blame the whole lie on the pressure caused by the safety bonus system.

Although it is impossible to prevent all of these problems, tweaking your program may help alleviate some of this pressure. As each company’s safety incentive program is different, it is impossible to discuss all potential modifications. However, the following are some ideas that you may be able to use to fine tune your program.
Incentivizing Safety
 
You may want to consider incentivizing the reporting of incidents, near misses, illnesses and injuries.  This creates a culture where all incidents must be reported, regardless of whether they are a serious concern or not. You want your crew to be in the habit of reporting anything from a headache, toothache or hangnail to a serious injury, without worrying about a safety bonus program. You can encourage the culture of reporting by creating a “quota” and reward system mandating that employees submit a certain number of safety suggestions, near miss reports, incident reports, etc.

Although it possibly sounds counterproductive, providing employees with a bonus to report incidents may actually save the company money in the long run. The more incidents that are reported, the sooner the risk department can identify tasks or jobs that are potentially unsafe and adopt policies that minimize the risk. This will provide a long term savings to the company.  

In the short term, although you may have additional incidents reported that you may not have heard of otherwise, the immediate notification of an incident allows your risk management team, and your attorneys, to timely conduct an investigation and determine what caused the incident and evaluate any potential liability for this particular claim. Although this type of investigation could be conducted later, it is always more effective to take witness statements and conduct the investigation while employees are still employed by the company and the incident is fresh in their minds. Thus, it may make sense to incentivize both the reporting of incidents as well as time without an accident.

The peer pressure that can be exerted against an injured employee by his co-workers is a bit more difficult to catch. We suggest that an incentive program include penal measures that seriously punish any employees who try to convince or intimidate an employee not to report an incident. Although no one wants to lose a good hand, an employee involved with such an infraction should be immediately terminated. As the potential loss of a job trumps any small incentive bonus, such a penal provision should eliminate such intimidation.

The improper classification of incidents can be resolved through proper training. Employees may attempt to manipulate the employee’s medical treatment or misclassify an injury to avoid having it considered as a lost time incident. Often, this behavior is based upon a misunderstanding of the program’s rules and is unnecessary. As such, it is very important that all employees are trained and educated on the specifics of the system and the company’s requirements for the reporting of all incidents.

All in all, safety incentive/bonus programs are a great tool that you can use to encourage your employees to be safe. If a crew can make it one year, two years, or ten years without a lost time accident, they should be rewarded. However, as you create your program, it is important to look at these efforts from the perspective of the employees and try to avoid incentivizing unwanted behaviors.  Spending a little time tweaking your program now may save you significant (legal) trouble down the road.


(As published in the July 2015 edition of Marine News - http://magazines.marinelink.com/Magazines/MaritimeNews)

Shallow shoals found in area were Shell icebreaker vessel Fennica was damaged

 

July 11, 2015

ANCHORAGE, Alaska 

 

A federal agency has found previously undetected shallow shoals in Alaska waters where a ship leased to Royal Dutch Shell PLC was damaged July 3.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says its mapping ship Fairweather found rocky areas less than 30 feet deep near Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.

NOAA says the areas were not detected by the last survey in 1935.

Dutch Harbor is a staging area for Shell vessels heading to the Chukchi Sea.

The 380-foot Fennica 10 days ago was departing Dutch Harbor when it was gashed by an obstruction that created a hole in its hull about 3 feet long and a half-inch wide.

Shell will send the icebreaker to Portland, Oregon, for repairs but does not expect an interruption in its drilling schedule.

These guys are a joke!  They are relying on 1935 surveys for a multibillion dollar project!  They are pathetic!

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/news/business/article27151594.html#storylink=cpy

Shell-shocked! Damaged Shell icebreaker ship Fennica needed for Arctic drilling heads to Oregon for repairs

 

July 13, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday that an icebreaker crucial to its planned Arctic oil drilling will be sent to Portland, Oregon, to repair a gash in its hull, but is not expected to delay plans to begin drilling off northern Alaska later in July.
The 39-inch (1 meter) gash in the hull of the Fennica was found last week.

MSV Fennica is a Finnish multipurpose icebreaker and platform supply vessel. Built in 1993 by Finnyards in Rauma, Finland and operated by Arctia Offshore, she was the first Finnish icebreaker designed to be used as an escort icebreaker in the Baltic Sea during the winter months and in offshore construction projects during the open water season. Fennica has an identical sister ship, Nordica, built in 1994.

On 3 July 2015, a hole of unknown origin about 39 inches (99 cm) long and less than half an inch (1.3 cm) wide was discovered in one of Fennica‍  '​s ballast tanks. The vessel, which was underway from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to the Chukchi Sea, returned to port for inspection and repairs. As of 7 July 2015, it is not known if the hull damage will affect to Shell's drilling operations as Fennica is tasked to carry the capping stack, a critical piece of safety equipment designed to shut off the flow of fluids from a well in case of blowout.

Voyage time between Portland and southern Alaska should not delay the company's plans to begin drilling off northern Alaska in the Chukchi Sea later this month, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.

The Fennica is one of two ice management vessels in Shell's fleet of nearly 30 ships it expects to bring to the Chukchi off northern Alaska this summer. It contains the capping stack, or emergency equipment designed to contain a blown-out undersea well, required for the drilling. "We do not anticipate any impact on our season as we don't expect to require the vessel until August," Smith said.

Shell believes that drilling can proceed while the Fennica is being repaired so long as it does not extend into the zone bearing oil and gas. It plans to build the foundations of wells and do other preparatory work before drilling into that zone.

The gash found in the Fennica was the second recent setback to Shell's Arctic ambitions. On June 30 the Interior Department informed Shell that established walrus protections prevent it from drilling two wells simultaneously that are less than 15 miles (24 km) apart, which means the company has to adjust its drilling this year.

Shell has not drilled in the Arctic since 2012 when after the summer drilling season an enormous drilling rig it was leasing broke free and grounded. If Shell discovers oil, it could begin producing in 10 or 15 years.

After this season it will have spent about $7 billion on Arctic drilling off Alaska before producing oil.

ADVERTISING

The company needs two minor permits from the Department of Interior before it can start drilling.


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Shell icebreaker Fennica damaged caused by uncharted shoal

July 11th, 2015 Donal Scully 

 

San Francisco, CA

The icebreaker Fennica, which suffered a gash to its hull last week while en route to Shell’s proposed Arctic drill site, may have been damaged by a previously uncharted shoal.

While the US Coast Guard (USCG) is still investigating the cause of the 39-inch by two-inch gash, the vessel’s Finnish owner Arctia Offshore, who contracted the Fennica to Shell, has asked the USCG to approve plans for sealing the hole.

The vessel is a crucial element of Shell’s Arctic fleet as it is loaded with a capping stack designed to fit on top of a damaged well in case of a blowout or other emergency. If it’s not ready it would put a crimp in Shell’s plans to start drilling in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska.

Shell was planning to start drilling in the third week of July, pending some minor clearances, and that would mark the oil giant’s return to Arctic drilling for the first time in three years.

The USCG announced that hydrographic surveyors discovered the shoal but they would not speculate as to whether it was the cause of the breach in the Fennica.


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For Immediate Release

Monday, July 13, 2015 - 1:30pm

Oceana

Contact: 

Christopher Krenz: ckrenz@oceana.org 907-586-4050
Jon Warrenchuk: jwarrenchuk@oceana.org 907-586-6744

Ice Breaker Fennica incident demonstrates Shell has not learned lessons of 2012

JUNEAU, AK - 

Automatic Identification System (AIS) data shows the MSV Fennica with a draft of 27 feet repeatedly crossed a rocky shoal previously marked as having a depth of less than 32 feet shortly before the ship was found to be damaged and a 3 foot gouge discovered. 

This was especially risky behavior given the deep draft of the Fennica, knowledge that the shorelines of Alaska are not well charted, ocean swells that can decrease clearance, and a nearby alternative deep water route to the west of Hog Island. 

Risky behavior and lack of adequate oversight of contractors were sighted by the government for being important contributors to Shell’s near disastrous 2012 Arctic drilling season. Oceana and SkyTruth are tracking vessel movements of interest. A map of the ships positions and route overlaid on a nautical chart is attached.

In response to this information Dr. Chris Krenz, Arctic Campaign Manager and Senior Scientist, issued the following statement:

“It is shocking that Shell appears to still be taking shortcuts instead of instituting a culture of safety and precaution. The Fennica could have easily travelled along a much safer route instead of going over a shallow, rocky shoal in an area that to begin with is not well charted. Shell’s 2015 drilling operations are reminiscent of their failures to operate safely in 2012.

Given the Fennica incident the Department of Interior should ensure a full investigation of this accident is completed and lessons learned and implemented before issuing Shell any further permits. If Shell’s management of their program is unable to avoid accidents such as these, they are certainly not ready to conduct activities that put the health of Arctic marine ecosystems at considerable risk.”

###

Oceana is the largest international ocean conservation and advocacy organization. Oceana works to protect and restore the world’s oceans through targeted policy campaigns.

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Damaged Arctic icebreaker’s route questioned

Posted on July 10, 2015 | By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

The MSV Fennica (Tom Doyle/Flickr)

HOUSTON, TEXAS

New marine tracking data shows a Shell-contracted icebreaker may have crossed through shallow waters that offered little clearance between the vessel’s bottom and the ocean floor before a 3-foot hole was discovered in its hull.

The Automatic Identification System data — location information captured every minute from the MSV Fennica — shows its July 3 route away from the Alaska Port of Dutch Harbor before a leak identified by a marine pilot and other crew onboard the icebreaker forced it to turn back.

When that AIS tracking data is overlaid over navigational charts of the area — which date back decades — it appears the Fennica crossed through waters with charted depths of as little as 31.5 feet. While an additional 3 feet may have been gained by high tide at the time, that would give the Fennica potentially scant clearance over some of the rocky shoal in those waters, because it drafts at the Fennica’s recorded draft is 27 feet, giving it potentially scant clearance over some of the rocky shoal.

It appears likely the Fennica was gouged when it traveled near a previously uncharted rocky shoal that was documented by a government survey ship on Wednesday and the subject of an alert to mariners a day later.

But conservation group Oceana, which conducted the analysis, said it suggests Shell’s contracted icebreaker still took a riskier path instead of a deeper alternative route around nearby Hog Island, as it trekked toward proposed drilling sites in the Arctic Ocean.

“There are safer, more precautionary ways for them to go,” said Chris Krenz, a senior scientist and Arctic campaign manager for the group. “The Fennica could have easily traveled along a much safer route instead of going over a shallow, rocky shoal in an area that (already) is not well charted.”

“This is risk-prone behavior, not risk-averse behavior,” Krenz said.

Krenz said it revived memories of the Dec. 31, 2012 grounding of the Kulluk, a Shell-owned drilling rig that ran aground on a rocky Alaska island after the company tried towing it across the stormy Gulf of Alaska. After investigations, the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board rapped Shell for failing to adequately assess the risks of the tow job.

More granular ship position detail was not immediately available Friday from Shell or Arctia, the Finnish company that owns the Fennica.

But a Shell spokesman on Monday said the Fennica’s planned route kept it in charted depths of at least 42 feet.

And Rick Entenmann, president of the Alaska Marine Pilots’ Western Alaska region, said the Fennica’s path kept it in charted depths of 7 1/2 to 10 fathoms of water — roughly 45 to 60 feet.

“The vessel would have had at least 10 feet under the keel,” Entenmann said. “Plus, we had a 3-foot tide.”

The Fennica is one of two ice-management vessels in Shell’s Arctic fleet.
Arctia and Shell are developing a repair plan that must be approved by the classification society Det Norske Veritas. The Coast Guard can review and offer its input into the repair plan.

The work could be done at the Fennica’s current location, in Dutch Harbor. The founder of a local repair company has suggested that the work is relatively straightforward.
But if more extensive work is needed, it could require moving the Fennica to a dry dock, a potentially time-consuming operation.

Shell has asked regulators for permission to drill two wells at its Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea, about 70 miles off Alaska’s coastline. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is reviewing the company’s applications for permits to drill. Other key federal approvals have already been issued.

Tropical Storm Claudette forms off the Mid-Atlantic coast, no threat to U.S. expected

By Brian McNoldy,  July 13, 2015

Visible satellite image of 92L from 8:45am EDT. (NASA)

 

12:55 p.m. update: This vigorous area of thunderstorms has been named Tropical Storm Claudette by the National Hurricane Center. It’s the third named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season. Claudette has sustained winds of 50 mph and is tracking northeast away from the Mid-Atlantic coast.

(NHC)

 

Original story:

The third tropical cyclone of the hurricane season might be just around the corner, if the system can quickly capitalize on a favorable environment that’s not expected to last long.

A trough of low pressure swept east into the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast early Sunday morning. Since then, it has been moving eastward and gradually acquiring some tropical characteristics. As of Monday morning, it is located about 400 miles east of Norfolk, Va., and tracking east-northeast and out to sea.

This area of thunderstorms hasn’t become a fully-fledged tropical cyclone yet, but the National Hurricane Center is monitoring it for potential development, and has named it Invest 92L in the meantime. If the stormy area continues to become more organized it would be named Tropical Depression Three, or even Tropical Storm Claudette if its winds are strong enough. The Hurricane Center is giving the area a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next five days.

Thunderstorm activity in the area has increased and become centralized, both signs that it is shifting more into the tropical end of the cyclone spectrum. The sea surface temperatures under it are plenty warm to support tropical development today, but the wind shear is only marginally conducive for tropical cyclones. By Tuesday, though, both environmental conditions will become outright hostile.

 

 

Shear and SST forecasts from the GFS global model for 92L. Note that by Tuesday, shear increases to over 30kts, and SST decreases to under 26C… and then GFS is unable to track a coherent vortex. (CIRA/RAMM)

If 92L gets named today, it would be 43 days earlier than last year’s third named storm. The average date of third named storm formation in the Atlantic (using 1981-2010 climatology) is August 14.

Average seasonal progression of cumulative number of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic, split into named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes (Category 3+).

 

Across the rest of the Atlantic Ocean, environmental conditions are historically hostile for hurricane development — record-setting in some places and parameters. Plus, as a very strong El Niño begins to settle in, the tropical Atlantic conditions will not become more supportive. More on that soon!

1 man killed, 1 injured in 4-vehicle, including two semi-truck and a bus crash on U.S. 6 south of Bowling Green, Ohio

BLADE STAFF

 

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO – 

The former mayor of Marblehead was killed in a four-vehicle crash this morning south of Bowling Green.

Steven Plottner, 57, died following the crash at about 7:50 a.m. near the intersection of U.S. 6 and Silverwood Road, according to the Bowling Green post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Mr. Plottner was traveling west on U.S. 6 in a minivan when he collided with a tractor-trailer rig. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash occurred after an eastbound bus driven by Guadalupe Trevino, 69, of Gibsonburg, for Sandusky County Teaching and Mentoring Communities stopped to turn left on U.S. 6.

A tractor-trailer rig driven by Douglas Greenwood, 50, of Tyler, Texas then stopped behind the bus at the intersection. His vehicle was struck from behind by another truck driven by Martin Gronka, 34, of Kenosha, Wisc. Mr. Gronka failed to maintain an assured clear distance ahead, troopers said.

Mr. Gronka's truck then drove left of center and hit Mr. Plottner's minivan. It proceeded to jackknife and strike the bus, they said.

Mr. Greenwood was taken to Wood County Hospital for minor injuries. Mr. Gronka, Mr. Trevino and the three unidentified adult bus passengers were not injured, authorities said.

The crash closed U.S. 6 for several hours and remains under investigation. 
Mr. Plottner was the mayor of Marblehead from 2000 to 2002.

Source: http://www.toledoblade.com/

Construction worker killed by excavator driven by co-worker at the the campus of Delta College in Michigan

 JULY 13, 2015

FRANKENLUST TOWNSHIP, MI — 

A construction accident on the campus of Delta College has resulted in a worker's death.

About 11:19 a.m. Monday, July 13, troopers with the Michigan State Police Tri-City Post responded to the site of the accident near the college's west parking lot. 

"Investigation revealed a worker was dumping stone into a ditch when the excavator he was operating slid into the ditch," said Special 1st Lt. David Kaiser. "The excavator slid into the ditch striking a fellow construction worker, fatally injuring him."

The man in the ditch was re-arranging gravel dumped in by the excavator, Kaiser said. 

The deceased is a 40-year-old man from Saginaw, Kaiser said. His name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, located out of state, the lieutenant added.

The man was employed by a private company, though Kaiser did not know the business's name. 

Delta College is upgrading its whole west parking lot this summer, said Leanne Govitz, Delta's director of marketing and public relations. In addition to being repaved, the layout will be improved. Other changes include new light poles with LED lighting, a new pedestrian path, extra motorcycle parking and new landscaping. The entire north portion, including West Campus Road is out of use until mid-August.

"This is a terrible tragedy that saddens every member of the Delta community," Govitz said. "Our thoughts and prayers go immediately to the family and friends of the worker who lost his life in the accident."

Delta College is located at 1961 Delta Road in Bay County's Frankenlust Township.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) is investigating the matter. 

Source:http://www.mlive.com