Page 5 - AT

A5
U.S. NEWS Tuesday 26 November 2019
Records: Boat on which 34

died exempt from safety rules

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The The safety exemptions the when meeting new regu-
diving boat that caught fire Conception and other lations is economically un-
on Labor Day off Southern boats received in the 1990s feasible and impractical.
California, killing 34 peo- are raising new questions. When adopting changes
ple, was among hundreds Kyle McAvoy, a marine to the Subchapter T regu-
of small vessels exempted safety expert at Robson lations in the 1990s, McA-
by the U.S. Coast Guard Forensic and former Coast voy said the Coast Guard
from stricter safety rules de- Guard chief of the Of- wanted to ensure improve-
signed to make it easier for fice of Commercial Vessel ments and safety for new In this Sept. 2, 2019 file photo provided by the Santa Barbara
passengers to escape, ac- Compliance Policy, said boats, but also had to ad- County Fire Department, a dive boat is engulfed in flames off the
cording to a newspaper re- the grandfathering of old- dress what to do with exist- Southern California Coast.
port Monday. er vessels often happens ing vessels. q Associated Press
The Conception was one
of 325 boats built before
1996 and given exemptions
from standards imposed
on new vessels, according
to records cited by the Los
Angeles Times. The new-
er rules required escape
hatches at least 32 inches
(81 centimeters) wide and
illuminated exit signs.
The Conception, built
in 1981, had a 24-inch
(61-centimeter) hatch and
no illuminated signs.
It's unclear whether such
measures would have
made a difference on the
Conception, the newspa-
per said. Crew members
on deck said they were un-
able to reach passengers
trapped in the hull below
because of intense flames.
It was the worst maritime
disaster in modern Califor-
nia history. U.S. authorities
are conducting criminal
and safety investigations
into the fire that killed all
33 passengers and one
crew member sleeping in
stacked bunks below deck.
The blaze's cause has not
been determined. Nation-
al Transportation Safety
Board investigator Jennifer
Homendy told the Times in
September that she was
"taken aback" by the small
size of the emergency es-
cape hatches, adding that
she thought it would be dif-
ficult for passengers to exit
during an emergency in
the dark. In the aftermath
of the fire, the Coast Guard
has stepped up inspections
of similar boats across the
country, the newspaper
said. Several boat own-
ers have said that among
the issues inspectors have
raised is the size of escape
hatches, fire protection sys-
tems and crew training in
emergencies.