Two families of crewmen lost in the El Faro cargo ship disaster on Tuesday accepted settlement amounts in their wrongful death claims, bringing to 23 the total of settled cases.
The crew of 33 were lost when the US-flagged El Faro went down off the Bahamas when it was caught in Hurricane Joaquin last October.
As with the previous 21 settlements the families of Theodore Quammie and Steven Shultz accepted $500,000 each for pain and suffering and undisclosed amounts for economic losses.
The payments will be from the vessel’s owners and operators Tote Services and Tote Maritime Puerto Rico.
El Faro was en route from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico with a cargo of cars when tragedy struck.
Two US Coast Guard (USCG) Maritime Board of Investigation hearings have been held so far and a third is pending.
On August 8 the voyage data recorder was retrieved from the ship’s wreckage on the ocean floor and data analyzed from that device will play into the third and final hearing.
The US National Transportation Safety Board says it has data from the VDR for the final 26 hours of the ship’s voyage.
