摘要: |
Good communication is vital for commercial vessels, whether it involves messages to crew on the shipboard PA system or to distant vessels over the VHF. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited poor communication as one of the causes of a recent accident where a barge hit a railroad bridge on Louisiana's Lake Borgne, near Lake Pontchartrain. A 56', twin-screw towboat was pushing the 195' barge through an open railroad swing bridge. Offering a vertical clearance of 11' in its closed position, the 414' span could rotate to provide a 153'-wide passage to vessels. At around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2021, the pilot radioed ahead at mile 38 to notify the bridge operator that they were roughly 30 minutes away and would require opening of the bridge span. The bridge operator responded that two trains had to pass first. |