Panamanian vessel which slammed into DHB sold

…company yet to pay compensation

Panamanian vessel MT Tradewind Passion, the ship that crashed into the Demerara Harbour Bridge last October causing major damages, has been sold and it is uncertain what further action Government will take to extract compensation.
General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, Wayne Watson told this publication that since the vessel left the jurisdiction, the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation is not in receipt of any financial reparation.
“No, the vessel left the jurisdiction and thereafter, the vessel was sold to some other person. So, the previous owner is not the owner presently. I am not too certain what course of action Government will take but I rather suspect they are working on something through the lawyers,” he disclosed.
Last November, the High Court had ordered that the ship be released to its owners subject to conditions. It also granted an order for limited liability of GY$245.5 million to be underwritten.
Justice Fidela Corbin-Lincoln ordered that permission be granted for the defendant and Canama Trading, the Panamanian company that owned the ship at that time, to argue limited liability as a defence against the property damage claims.
The October 8, 2022 collision rendered the ageing DHB structure inoperable for several days and resulted in billions of dollars in damages.
It also resulted in injuries to Shift Supervisor Andy Duke, who had to jump from the lookout tower – an act that resulted in him fracturing his leg and being hospitalised. The other men who were working at the bottom of the bridge, including Mechanical Maintenance Engineer Ahmad Khan, had to run for their lives.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill had said that repairs to the Demerara Harbour Bridge following Tradewind Passion’s collision, had racked up a bill of over $1 billion, which the owners of the vessel would be liable for. Government continued to stand additional costs for repairs as a result of the impact, evident from the recent span replacement – which carried a whopping price tag of $1.2 billion.

Findings
A Board of Inquiry (BoI) into the incident had recommended, among other things, that the vessel’s pilot be suspended for 24 months and the implementation of International Collision Regulations/Conventions to which Guyana is a signatory.
According to the inquiry, the probable cause of the collision was as a result of the bridge teams’ exclusive reliance on the contract pilot’s incorrect navigational direction, and their total reliance on looking at the bridge and disregarding alarms of the electronic system on the vessel as it approached the bridge.
The BoI found that the captain failed to assume command of the vessel in a timely manner and manoeuvre it safely into the channel and through the transit, that the passage plan provided adequate information for safe navigation of the bridge zone but was not properly executed and monitored, that at the time of the collision MARAD had no oversight of river pilots; hence the safety of vessels’ operations beyond the southern limits were not guaranteed.
It was also found that there was no clear path of communication on the vessel’s bridge as the inquiry found several persons were giving commands at the same time, thereby contributing to chaos on the bridge and that the vessel was not equipped with a bow thruster which could have enhanced its manoeuvrability, thereby steering it away from the DHB or alternatively reducing the impact of the collision. (G12)