Tanker hits Bay Bridge - probe begins No oil spills as tanker hits Bay Bridge tower - human error investigated

Above: A worker inspects damage to the bottom of a tower on the western span of the Bay Bridge after it was struck by an oil tanker. Above: A worker inspects damage to the bottom of a tower on the western span of the Bay Bridge after it was struck by an oil tanker. Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Tanker hits Bay Bridge - probe begins 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

The Coast Guard is looking at human error as a possible explanation for an accident Monday in which an empty oil tanker sideswiped a tower of the Bay Bridge, officials said.

No oil spilled into the bay when the starboard side of the tanker, the Overseas Reymar, scraped the easternmost tower of the bridge's western span at 11:20 a.m. as the ship headed out to sea, the Coast Guard said.

Caltrans said the fenders around the tower were damaged, but that the bridge itself was unharmed. No one was injured.

It was the second time in a little more than five years that a ship hit a tower of the western span. Unlike in November 2007, when the container ship Cosco Busan spilled 53,000 gallons of fuel oil, the Overseas Reymar's hull survived with only "scrapes and dents," said Charlie Goodyear, a spokesman for the San Francisco Bar Pilots association.

The Overseas Reymar is a double-hull vessel, its owner said. The Cosco Busan had only a single hull.

Limited visibility

It wasn't immediately clear what caused Monday's accident, the Coast Guard said. Fog had cut visibility to about a quarter-mile, but all the navigational aids designed to alert pilots to the presence of the bridge appeared to be working correctly, officials said.

Lt. Cmdr. Shawn Lansing said the Coast Guard was looking into human error as a possible cause of the crash.

"That is ... what we'll look into here and see whether in fact it was a human error or something else," Lansing said at a news conference on Treasure Island. The Coast Guard cautioned, however, that a final determination could take months.

The ship was under the control of Guy Kleess, a bar pilot with eight years of experience, state authorities said. Efforts to reach Kleess for comment were unsuccessful.

Kleess, 61, a resident of San Francisco, has a clean record as a pilot, Goodyear said.

"He had previously been a ship's captain, and I think that experience included captaining oil tankers," Goodyear said. "He is a very experienced mariner."

Pilot has control

A bar pilot gives orders to the helmsman while a ship is in the bay. Although the captain has the ultimate responsibility, the pilot has control.

Bar pilots are regulated by the California Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun. Its executive director, Allen Garfinkle, said the board was looking into the accident.

"We try to determine if there's any pilot error," Garfinkle said. "Our investigation runs concurrent with the Coast Guard," which is leading the probe into the incident.

Lansing said the ship's crew and Kleess would be tested for drugs and alcohol and held in port until the investigation is complete. Goodyear said Kleess was scheduled to talk to Coast Guard investigators Tuesday.

Ship had left Martinez

The Overseas Reymar, built in 2004, is 751 feet long and 105 feet wide and has a maximum speed of 14 knots, or about 16 mph. The vessel is based in Majuro, a large coral atoll in the Marshall Islands, and is owned by OSG Ship Management, which is headquartered in New York.

The tanker left a dock near the Shell refinery in Martinez early Monday before passing south under the Bay Bridge. It briefly anchored, then turned around and headed back north, according to the ship's track on MarineTraffic.com, a commercial ship-tracking website.

The ship was traveling at 11.8 knots when it hit the tower, according to the website.

OSG Ship Management issued a statement saying the ship "came in contact with an underwater portion of the structure." Goodyear said there was damage to the rear starboard portion of the ship above the waterline.

Some 4,000 feet of absorbent boom was staged as a precaution after the tanker anchored west of Yerba Buena Island, the Coast Guard said.

"We have game wardens, scientists and oil spill prevention specialists on scene," said Alexia Retallack, the spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response. "So far our patrol boats have not found any oil."

Cosco Busan disaster

The tower that the Overseas Reymar hit is just east of the tower that the Cosco Busan struck on Nov. 7, 2007. Oil from that spill spread along 26 miles of shoreline and beaches in Marin and San Mateo counties and killed more than 6,800 birds.

The 901-foot Cosco Busan hit the bridge in a thick morning fog. The National Transportation Safety Board assigned much of the blame to the pilot, Capt. John Cota of Petaluma, a pilot for 27 years.

The board said he set sail in a fog that kept other pilots in port, failed to inform the ship's captain of his navigation plan, misread the ship's radar and navigation charts, and used medications that impaired his thinking.

The board also said the vessel's operators had failed to train the crew adequately, and criticized the Coast Guard for failing to provide clear warnings.

Cota pleaded guilty in 2009 to federal charges of causing water pollution and was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The ship's operating company, Fleet Management Ltd., pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of water pollution and two felony counts of filing false documents and was fined $10 million.

Fleet Management and the ship's owner, Regal Stone Ltd., settled damage claims by federal, state and local agencies for $44.4 million in 2011, and also agreed to pay $3.6 million to 120 members of the Bay Area fishing community.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Henry K. Lee and Peter Fimrite contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.