Straddle Carrier Turnover: With Fatal Results [Port Newark, New Jersey – 13 July 2022]
![Straddle Carrier Turnover: With Fatal Results [Port Newark, New Jersey – 13 July 2022]](http://www.blueoceana.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Uriel-Matamoros-623x200.jpg)
With great regret, as-yet unconfirmed reports coming to Blueoceana Company have revealed that an early morning straddle carrier turnover accident occurred at Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT), Newark, New Jersey and that the operator of the machine experienced fatal injuries as a consequence.
We’re actively seeking additional details, and when further information becomes available it will appear within this post as an UPDATE.
We note, with sad irony and with an abiding respect for the genuine safety efforts that management and labor at this particular marine terminal have exhibited, that PNCT and its staff had recently concluded a very busy June 2022 without a lost-time accident. A remarkable achievement, which is totally incompatible with today’s very sad event.
UPDATE: 13 July; 4:30 PM – Somewhere between midnight and 1:00 AM today, an ILA longshoreman was operating Straddle Carrier 142 on the dock at PNCT (Newark, New Jersey). He had just picked up an MT 40′ container and was moving in his lane; heading towards the container yard’s MT stacks. He was traveling with the box fairly low; with the machine in a relatively stable position.
We’re told the CCTV video shows the operator engaging in a movement to take it out of the lane, whereupon it becomes unstable and turns over. The machine landed with the operator’s cab side down, slamming into the paved surface of the apron. Speed doesn’t appear to be an issue, but we’ll have to wait on that analysis.
Surviving an impact like that is tough, but this longshoreman’s survival was made even tougher (perhaps impossible), in that he had not engaged his seat belt. A very well liked guy; a proud ex-marine; a doting father and life partner; a man with rising seniority and a great work ethic….. all gone; for what reason?
We’ll miss “Popeye” and those of us who knew him will greatly lament his passing.
4 Comments
This is what happens when people work 6 hours on, then 6 hours off, 7 days a week. On poorly maintained equipment. Sleep deprivation is the biggest safety concerns on the waterfront.
Shift work on all piers is a MUST to save lives.
Nobody is forced to work 7 days/week. You’re free to take days off anytime. There is no evidence that this particular incident is the result of sleep deprivation. Shift work is bad for worker’s morale due to the limits it places on an individual’s financial success and will eventually have negative affect on production.
A separate, personal reply was provided to “Sheila”, via an email address she provided with her comment. She has not responded to that email.
It’s a very complicated issue, and has been for many years.
Others have sent in comments, but their tone was such as to potentially erupt into loud argument.
In deference to Popeye, I’ve chosen not to have his memory sullied by argument at this page.