Maritime Accident News

$44 million settlement reached in Cosco Busan oil spill

On Nov. 7 2007, the vessel Cosco Busan smashed into a tower of the San Francisco Bay Bridge while traveling at unsafe speed in heavy fog. 53,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the bay, wreaking enormous destruction of beaches and wildlife.

The 810-foot cargo ship's owners and operators have agreed to a $44 million settlement in a federal and state lawsuit.

Regal Stone and Fleet Management signed the decree to reimburse for the post-disaster response costs. They also have to pay damages and penalties including $18.8 million for beach closures.

Almost 7,000 birds were killed, including endangered murrelets, as were between 14 and 29 percent of the following winter's herring spawn.

This is the biggest settlement made under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act (OPA 90). Two years earlier, Fleet Management of Hong Kong had agreed on paying a $10 million fine in a plea agreement in the federal criminal case.

Here, the company admits to OPA 90 violations, making false statements and felony obstruction of justice. Fleet conjured up a fake passage plan on the day of the crash and a ship officer falsified a navigational chart.

John Cota, the ship's pilot, pled guilty in 2009 to violating OPA 90 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. He also admitted to failing to disclose that Vicodin, Zoloft and Tylenol were some of his medications at the time of the accident. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

Source: All Headline News.com

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