EXCELSIOR

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Appeal to cargo loss - little change of finement

In the appeal to the cargo loss of the "Excelsior" on the Rhine in Cologne in March 2007, the court on Cologne on Nov 27 remained by a fine. According to the judge two errors of the captain were responsible for a list of the ship after which 32 containers fell into the Rhine. The judgment deviated only slightly from that of the Duisburg district court from 2009. The skipper was found to have been negligent and thus caused contamination of water and endangered navigation. The fine has been increased from 3200 to 3900 Euro. However, the court - unlike the prosecution - did not see willful misconduct. The second captain was acquitted again. According to the judge two errors of the captain have led to the accident in the afternoon of Mar 25, 2007 at Zündorf. Before departing in Mannheim, where the "Excelsior" was loaded with 102 containers, the skipper had omitted a specific stability testing. In the process, the defendant had argued that such a calculation would not have made sense, because the specified weight of the container rarely was correct. The judge was of the opinion, that the addition of the weight of each container would have led to a prohibition of sailing. When the ship already had a significant list, the captain decided to take on additional ballast water which was his second critical mistake. The situation thus worsened, and during a turning maneuver the containers which were partially loaded with chemicals eventually fell over board. The Rhine was closed for five days during the recovery work after the accident. The financial losses caused by this were two million Euro, another 600,000 Euro had to be added for the damaged goods in the containers, demands which the former master cannot fulfill. However, the second captain was acquitted because he had a break both during the loading of the ship and when disaster struck. German report with photos: http://www.rundschau-online.de/koeln/havarie-der--excelsior--keine-haftstrafe-fuer-den-kapitaen,15185496,20978120.html