It was one of three tugs pushing a barge down the Hudson when it hit a stationary barge that was part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project.
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Yesterday, a tugboat crashed into a stationary barge near a New York City bridge that is under construction.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said one of the crewmen, 62-year-old Paul Amon, of Bayview, New Jersey, had been found dead in the water Saturday.
“Sometimes it’s just a pure accident, and that’s what this occurs to be, just a pure accident”, Cuomo said. “The fuel leak created a slick some 300 feet (91 meters) wide and 5 miles (8 km) long” , said the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation Governor, Andrew Cuomo. He’s been identified as 56-year-old Harry Hernandez from Staten Island. Cuomo also stressed that things could have been far worse-thirteen workers were aboard the barge when it was struck by the tugboat, but suffered no injuries. The water temperature in the area was about 40 degrees, officials told CBS News.
This story has been corrected to say 21 people were on the barge that was struck, according to a press release from Gov. Cuomo.
“It was a staunch, seaworthy tug”, said James Mercante, a maritime attorney representing Specialist LLC.
Dive teams suspended their search for the third tugboat worker this afternoon due to river conditions.
Crews say the boat suffered significant damage and that getting inside of the vessel is a challenge in itself. The new cable-stayed span is expected to be completed in 2018, replacing the 16,000-foot-long cantilever bridge, which opened in 1955. “Right now the company is more concerned with the families of the crew and mourning”.
Emergency crews resumed their search Sunday for two men following Saturday’s deadly tugboat accident in the Hudson River. It was back in 2013 when a horrific boating accident at the very same location killed a bride-to-be and a best man two weeks before the wedding.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, state and Coast Guard officials said.
The boat had 5,000 gallons of diesel aboard that is now leaking into the Hudson.
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A New York State DEC boat heads out from Tarrytown, toward the Tappan Zee Bridge early Sunday morning, March 13, 2016, after a fatal boating accident the day before.
