Crew Member Missing after Ohio River Towboat Accident

Hopes are fading for the rescue of a towboat crewmember after his vessel sank in the Ohio River. The Coast Guard as well as water units from Cincinnati and Boone County, have been scouring the waters of the Ohio River, looking for the third crew member who continues to remain missing after the towboat sank on Sunday.

The towboat Credo, went down on the left bank of the river. Two of the crew members were able to swim to safety. They are fine, but have suffered severe hypothermia. According to the two men, the boat went down quickly, and it’s not known if the man went down with the boat. The boat contained up to 500 gallons of fuel, and according to search crews, is leaking fuel oil.

Conditions were not prime for a rescue, according to the report. The water temperature was about 45°. This means that the third crew member Christopher McAllister is not likely to have survived if he had been in the river for a long time.

Our thoughts are with the family of Christopher McAllister. We will have to wait until the Coast Guard comes out with a report to understand why the accident occurred. It seems that the towboat went down suddenly, and the crew members did not have much time to put emergency boat evacuation measures in place.

You don’t have to tell a maritime worker the dangers of the job. Many of them do enter this line because the salary packages are attractive, and educational qualifications required are not too high. However, it’s impossible to completely prepare a worker for how swiftly risk can turn into death on the water.

The maritime lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers  represent injured towboat operators, tugboat and barge workers, freighter and tanker crews, oil rig and offshore workers, cruise ship workers and other maritime workers in Texas and around the country.