Bay Area oil spill leads to massive investigation by Corina Ciubotaru

A ship colliding with a bridge in San Francisco's Bay Area has caused the worst oil spill in nearly two decades. The 58,000 gallons of fuel leaking from the ship's tanks killed marine life, closed two dozen beaches and piers and led to a detailed investigation. Officials in the Coast Guard are now trying to determine what exactly caused the accident, and their biggest bet would be on human error. They are checking to see whether this error was due to the language barrier between the English-speaking captain and his Chinese crew, even though all crew members are required to speak English. A parallel investigation is to be conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, in an attempt to determine how much this event was influenced by factors like fatigue and weather and how the authorities should respond to this type of emergency in the future. The crew is prohibited from leaving the ship, MV Cosco Busan until the investigation is over, but they have not been officially arrested. Apparently, their ship crashed into one of the towers supporting the Bay Bridge, and since the ship had no obvious technical flaws, a human error is the most likely cause. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency and over the weekend, 20 boats were called in to clean up the water, but cleaning the entire area, including beaches, is expected to take months. The oil spread from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate and sickened thousands of birds in the process; 200 birds were rescued and sent to a rehabilitation center.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071111/ap_on_re_us/bay_spill;_ylt=ArIBtcuzx.rySjUoSvQDb4Gs0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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