What are your thoughts of the haven oil spill?

Answer 1

The MT Haven was a oil tanker accident in 1991. I have include two links on the accident. You may see some similarities between the BP oil spill and the Haven accident, as there was loss of life and environmental damage. The MT Haven accident occurred only seven miles from Genoa (much closer than the BP Oil spill, approximately 48 miles from the coast).

The owners of the tanker were charged with manslaughter, but the court acquitted them. The verdict, as stated in the media report, was quite controversial as environmental groups wanted the owners to go to jail.

My thoughts. Tanker safety is an international concern. Safety and environmental standards are harder to enforce. Their owners may not have the resources to effectively clean up spills. Fortunately, spills are limited to the capacity of the tanker and in terms of volumes spilled, offshore platforms have the potential to spill many times higher volumes than tankers.

A final thought is the owners of the MT Haven were charged with negligence, but it could not be proven in court. BP has been charged with gross negligence but this must be proved in court before civil penalties (fines) can be levied, if they are found guilty. It will be a long time before we know the outcome.