Fatigue and Cell Phone Use Lead to $810,000 Mississippi River Barge Collision

A tow pilot distracted by personal cell phone use and suffering from fatigue caused a significant collision with moored barges on the lower Mississippi River last year, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday.

The incident occurred on April 17, 2024, when the towing vessel William B Klunk, pushing 22 loaded hopper barges, struck moored barges at a fleeting area near Baton Rouge. The collision caused 13 barges to break away from the William B Klunk tow and three additional barges to break free from the fleeting area, resulting in damage to multiple vessels and infrastructure with estimated costs reaching $810,000.

NTSB investigators found the pilot failed to make any rudder or throttle adjustments in the nearly six minutes leading up to the collision. Onboard image recorder footage revealed the pilot using his personal cell phone and not monitoring the tow’s position just 40 seconds before impact.

“Use of cell phones, including company cell phones (particularly for nonoperational conversations), should never interfere with a watchstander’s primary task to safely navigate a vessel and maintain a proper lookout,” the NTSB report stated.

Fatigue played a significant contributing factor, with investigators determining the pilot had received only about four hours of continuous sleep in the 36 hours before the collision and had been awake for nearly 18 hours at the time of the incident.

“The risk of distraction increases when an individual is fatigued,” noted the report. “Fatigue’s impacts to attention, vigilance, and multi-tasking can increase the likelihood that an individual will disengage from their primary task and become distracted by a secondary task.”

The incident adds to a growing pattern of maritime accidents linked to electronic device distractions and crew fatigue. The NTSB has investigated several similar cases in recent years, including the 2023 allision where the towing vessel John 3:16 struck a pier on the Lower Mississippi River and the 2022 collision between the bulk carrier Bunun Queen and offshore supply vessel Thunder in the Gulf of Mexico. In the latter incident, NTSB found the officer on the Thunder was “using his personal cell phone,” while the Bunun Queen’s officer was distracted by other non-navigational tasks—preventing both officers from maintaining a proper lookout.

The full details of the investigation are available in Marine Investigation Report 25-26.

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