An urgent need for a pee likely led to a collision between a bunker barge and a general cargo vessel last year, an investigation by UK authorities has found.
Cargo ship Daroja and the bunker barge Erin Wood collided in broad daylight in August of 2015, off the coast of Peterhead in Scotland.
The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch’s (MAIB) report outlined a catalogue of errors that led to the collision. The master of the Erin Wood was criticised for not reacting fast enough when he spotted the Daroja bearing down on his vessel while he relieved himself off the side of his tanker. The chief officer of the Daroja, meanwhile, was using his phone and reading paperwork in the moments before the collision, the report found.
Neither watchman on both ships were deemed to have been paying sufficient attention to realise they were on a collision course on August 29 last year.
The investogators also concluded the crew of Erin Wood were not “suitably qualified” to handle a small tanker and that the Buckie-based operators had put “commercial gain ahead of safety at sea”.
