Kentucky Tells Feds of Steps Taken on Collapsed Bridge

Kentucky’s top transportation official has told the National Transportation Safety Board that navigation lights on bridges are working properly and that workers who inspect and maintain the lights are properly trained.

The Paducah Sun reported Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary Mike Hancock sent a letter to the federal government saying that the training of transportation personnel was carried out well in advance of the NTSB’s publicly recommending such action.

The NTSB and the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the crash of the M/V Delta Mariner, a ship owned by Foss Maritime Co., into the Eggner’s Ferry bridge on the Tennessee River and Kentucky Lake on Jan. 26.

At the time of the crash a signal maintenance crew was engaged in a project to correct short-circuiting in the navigation lights.

The NTSB issued a safety recommendation on July 25 that called on the state to verify the status and proper operation of navigation lighting, develop appropriate inspection and maintenance procedures, and ensure that transportation personnel were trained in those procedures.

“Before the issuance of the recommendations, KYTC took steps to address these issues,” Hancock said in the response letter to NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman.

Also, the NTSB cited a letter, dated Dec. 15, in which the Coast Guard notified the cabinet of reports from mariners that lights on the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge were not operating properly or were extinguished.

Hancock wrote that the NTSB letter could be taken to mean that no work at been performed on the bridge lights since Dec. 15, 2011.

“However, in fact, KYTC personnel had been working on the bridge lights since that date; moreover, KYTC personnel had been working on those lights during the week prior” to the collision, Hancock wrote.

The NTSB letter also failed to note that KYTC personnel, in keeping with the Coast Guard’s own protocol, kept the Coast Guard apprised that bridge lights were out. The Coast Guard, in keeping with the same protocol, issued multiple broadcast notices to mariners that lights were out on the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge.