Ship's pilot charged in SF oil spill
WASHINGTON (AP) - March 17, 2008 Capt. John Cota faces misdemeanor charges, including harming
migrant birds protected by the government and violating the Clean
Water Act.
Cota was at the helm of the container ship Cosco Busan during
the Nov. 7 collision with the Bay Bridge. He faces up to a year in
jail and more than $100,000 in fines, the Justice Department said.
The charges, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco,
accuse Cota of ignoring heavy fog to pilot the ship without
designating or reviewing a safe course through the bay with the
ship's crew.
The government also says Cota "failed to use the ship's radar
as he approached the Bay Bridge" or rely on any other navigational
devices that might have helped him steer clear of disaster.
"These failures led to the Cosco Busan striking the bridge and
spilling the oil," the Justice Department said in a statement.
As a result of the Cosco Busan spill, an estimated 2,000 birds
died, including federally endangered brown pelicans and federally
threatened marbled murrelet, which are endangered under California
law. The losses also included Western grebes.
Cota was not taken into custody, according to court papers.
His attorney, Jeff Bornstein, accused the government of bringing
charges before the National Transportation Safety Board concluded
its investigation of the crash.
"Their decision to bring the charges at this time surprises us
given the fact that the NTSB is still continuing to really focus on
exactly what happened and all the factors that are involved in
that," Bornstein said.
Bornstein said he was not aware of any similar prosecutions that
came "before a finding of exactly what occurred."
"This is something that concerns us," he said in a telephone
interview.
The NTSB plans to hold a public hearing on the case April 8-9,
where it will hear from experts, and the board anticipates
establishing a "probable cause" by the end of 2008.
---
Associated Press writer Scott Lindlaw in San Francisco
contributed to this report.
