SAN FRANCISCO – The Coast Guard continues to investigate Monday morning’s allision by the Overseas Reymar with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
The vessel Overseas Reymar reported the allision at 11:20 a.m. Monday. There were no reports of injuries in the incident or during the subsequent response by the Coast Guard, Caltrans, the California Dept. of Fish and Game, and other federal, state and local agencies. There has been no sign of pollution from the vessel.
The ship remains anchored in Anchorage 7, just west of Treasure Island, where it was ordered to remain by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port shortly after the incident. Coast Guard vessel inspectors and other maritime experts are still assessing the damage to the ship to determine what repairs may be required before it will be allowed to sail.
The Coast Guard is conducting a Marine Casualty Investigation in accordance with federal regulations. The National Transportation Safety Board will be conducting its own investigation of the incident.
Coast Guard and NTSB investigators work together wherever possible during the fact finding and analysis stages of marine accident investigations to avoid duplication of effort, but each agency may publish its own final report to satisfy different regulatory requirements. Investigators will look at all possible causes and factors that may have contributed to the allision. Interviews and the collection of other evidence are ongoing.
The Coast Guard investigation of the incident is in its initial stages:
- Investigations require interviews, technical analyses, ship and hull inspections, a review of all records and typically requires several months to complete.
- Drug and alcohol tests for the pilot, master, and key crew members have been conducted. The alcohol test results are negative. The drug test results are not yet available.
- The Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) communicates with all large commercial ships moving through the bay and they were in contact with the Overseas Reymar Monday morning. Audio recordings of radio traffic and other evidence are part of the ongoing investigation and are not releasable until the investigation is complete. After initial review of these conversations, however, we know that the VTS warned the ship prior to the allision.
- Coast Guard investigators have completed initial interviews with the pilot, master, and key crew members.
- The findings of the investigation will be released when they are complete.
