Tugboat apprentice pilots, accidents rise

The Associated Press reviewed Coast Guard records and discovered more and more tugboat captains in the United States have less than one year of piloting experience. According to the article by Cain Burdeau, “A federal program to recruit more tugboat pilots may have backfired by allowing thousands of novice captains to take the helm and contributing to a 25 percent increase in the number of accidents on the nation’s rivers.” In 2008, 1,754 accidents involved tugboats, barges and related vessels.