Van Oord Dredger’s Four Dutch Crew Face Charges Over Singapore Collision and Oil Spill

Four crew members of the Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima are facing charges for their alleged role in causing Singapore’s worst oil spill in a decade.

The incident, which occurred on June 14, 2024, resulted in approximately 400 tonnes of fuel leaking into the waters off Singapore’s coast.

The collision took place at the Pasir Panjang Terminal in Singapore, where the Vox Maxima, operated by Netherlands-based Van Oord, struck a bunker vessel, the Marine Honour, which was moored alongside a container ship.

The subsequent oil spill spread to multiple coastlines including East Coast Park, Labrador Nature Reserve, and Sentosa in Singapore, and even reaching as far as the Johor coastline in Kota Tinggi, Malaysia.

The four Dutch nationals—Merijn Heidema (25), Martin Hans Sinke (48), Richard Ouwehand (49), and Eric Peijpers (55)—were charged under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 on November 6. Each crew member held a specific role during the incident, with Ouwehand serving as the master of Vox Maxima and Sinke as the officer in charge of the navigational watch.

The incident reportedly began when the Vox Maxima experienced a sudden loss of engine and steering control just before colliding with the Marine Honour.

According to the charges, Ouwehand and Sinke allegedly failed to ensure that emergency steering procedures were implemented when emergency power was supplied to the vessel’s steering gear pumps. Heidema and Peijpers, who were officers in charge of the engineering watch, are accused of failing to maintain an adequate reserve of power for the ship’s steering gear when the engine room was put on standby.

The legal proceedings for the four crew members are set to continue, with the next court date scheduled for December 4.

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