According to the report from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, a towboat pilot’s distraction due to using a personal mobile phone led to a collision with a moored barge on the lower Mississippi River last year.
On April 17, 2024, the towboat William B Klunk collided with a moored barge at a temporary mooring area near Baton Rouge while pushing 22 loaded hopper barges. The accident caused 13 barges to break free from the William B Klunk tow, and 3 barges drifted away from the temporary mooring area, resulting in damage to multiple barges, a fleet workboat, and two mooring piles. The incident caused one minor injury and an estimated loss of $810,000.
The pilot reported using a personal mobile phone during the voyage. For nearly six minutes before the collision, as the tow approached the temporary mooring area, the pilot made no helm or throttle adjustments. Footage from the onboard video recording system showed that 40 seconds before the collision, the pilot was using a personal mobile phone and not monitoring the tow’s position.
During the approximately 1.5-hour voyage preceding the collision, the pilot engaged in several secondary tasks unrelated to operations, including answering an administrative call from a company safety officer, making a personal phone call, and sending text messages.
The report states: “The use of cell phones (including company phones, especially for non-work calls) should never interfere with the primary duties of the watchstander to safely navigate the vessel and maintain a proper lookout. To mitigate the risk of cell phone distraction, operating companies should establish procedures regarding personal and work-related cell phone use, and crewmembers should understand the importance of complying with these procedures.”
Investigators determined that pilot fatigue due to insufficient sleep the previous night was also a contributing factor to the collision. In the 36 hours before the collision, the pilot had obtained only about 4 hours of continuous sleep. At the time of the collision, the pilot had been continuously awake for nearly 18 hours.
The report emphasizes: “The risk of distraction is heightened when an individual is fatigued. The effects of fatigue on attention, alertness, and the ability to multitask increase the likelihood that an individual will disengage from a primary task and become distracted by a secondary task.
