Second Circuit: Shared blame for Tricolor loss
Three ships share liability in a 2002 collision in the English Channel that resulted in the sinking of a Wallenius Line car carrier Tricolor.
In a closely watched case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed a district court decision that had found a single vessel, the Kariba, to be exclusively at fault for the accident, which resulted in the loss of the $40 million ship, and its cargo of luxury cars worth another $49 million.
The collision occurred on Dec. 14, 2002, before dawn in heavy fog. The Kariba and Tricolor were traveling roughly west, with the Tricolor overtaking the Kariba on its starboard side. The Clary was proceeding north on a collision course with the Kariba.
When the Kariba turned to avoid collision with the Clary, she struck the Tricolor. There was no loss of life, but the Tricolor sank quickly and was a total loss.
Positioned in one of the busiest waterways in the world, the Tricolor wreck was hit in the following days by two other ships, the Nicola and Vicky. The Tricolor was eventually cut up into pieces and removed.
The Kariba had conceded that its violations of the collision regulations contributed to the accident, but contended that the other two ships had contributed to the accident.
The court agreed. It found all the ships had been traveling too fast, that Kariba had violated rules by turning into the Tricolor, that the Tricolor had violated the rules on both overtaking, and that the Clary could have taken evasive action sooner. It also noted that there were unexplained alterations of the logbooks on the Clary.
“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has rectified the district court’s error in putting sole fault on Kariba and ruled that violations of the collision regulations by Tricolor and Clary also caused the collision,” said John Kimball of Blank Rome, who represented the owners of Kariba.
In a concurring opinion, Judge Jon O. Newman urged “the development of some form of sea traffic control system for crowded seal lanes to lessen the risk of a ship collision of the sort illustrated by this appeal.
“A sea traffic control system needs not be as elaborate as modern air traffic control systems, but the lack of even a rudimentary nautical counterpart to the systems that monitor and control crowded air spaces cries out for a remedy,” he said.
Second Circuit: Shared blame for Tricolor loss
