Tacoma port hunts YouTube poster of port accident footage
Port of Tacoma officials are trying to determine who posted port security camera footage of a straddle carrier accident to YouTube and whether the poster violated any laws in doing so.
The nearly minute-long video shows the straddle carrier slam into the power transmission pole located at the edge of a Ports America container yard and violently displace the surrounding K-rail curbs. The large pole did not fall over, though port officials said it was knocked loose by the collision.
The accident caused an hour-long blackout to a wide area of the port, and also led to evacuations, precautionary fire department actions, and a discharge of oily soot from a neighboring oil refinery.
During the subsequent investigation of the accident, copies of the security camera footage were sent to the parties involved, including insurance firms, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23, oil refinery operator U.S. Oil and Refining, terminal operator Ports America and Tacoma Power.
Port officials are reviewing staff e-mail records in an effort to determine if the YouTube poster is a port employee.
'We would have concerns about whether one of our employees is posting things. Anytime we have questions about professional behavior of our employees, we certainly take it seriously,” port spokeswoman Tara Mattina told the Tacoma News Tribune.