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Tugboat captain Matthew Devlin was sentenced in November to one year plus one day in prison. He began serving his sentence on Tuesday, January 9 for his role in a deadly July 2010 Philadelphia maritime accident.
Devlin’s tugboat was pushing a barge in the busy shipping channel when he was distracted by an emergency cell phone call from his family. He received news that his son had experienced complications during surgery. The barge he was steering then crashed into a duck boat that had stalled.
Thirty-seven tourists were thrown into the river water when the crash occurred. All but two were rescued. The two, Dora Schwendtner, 16, and Szabolcs Prem, 20 never surfaced and were drowned. Both of the deceased were Hungarians participating in a church exchange program here in the United States.
According to trial evidence, Devlin placed and received several calls on his cell phone. He also used the Internet to look up medical information while moving to a different location on the tug for privacy. This move obstructed his view and created a blind spot. The duck boat sent out a number of distress calls but no response was ever given. The barge struck it full on.
Devlin, who pled guilty, told the court, “I wish that I could take it all back. I just wasn’t thinking clearly . . . .” The 35-year-old captain was found guilty of the maritime charge, “misconduct of a ship operator causing death,” which compares to involuntary manslaughter on land.
The maritime lawyers at Vujasinovic & Beckcom regret that the incident ever occurred and urge safety on all waterways.
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