1st Crane Inquiry Finds No Criminal Conduct

A preliminary investigation by San Diego police found no evidence of criminal negligence in the shipyard crane accident that killed six civilian workers and injured six others last week at National Steel & Shipbuilding Co., police spokesmen said Tuesday.

The report, based on interviews with the crane operator, injured workers and eyewitnesses, concludes that there was no “gross criminal negligence” on the part of either the operator or Nassco, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

However, officials in the San Diego County district attorney’s office said Tuesday that they will wait to review a more detailed report from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in several weeks before determining whether to pursue any criminal charges.

“The wheels are moving, but it’s too early to say what might or might not happen,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John Massucco Jr. said. “We haven’t actually done or received anything . . . needed to make that decision.”

Manslaughter Charges Possible

Under state law, manslaughter charges could be filed if investigators believe that the fatal accident was caused by carelessness or by either a worker or the company not displaying “due caution and circumspection . . . in the commission of an act . . . which involves a high degree of risk or bodily harm.”

But Robinson said homicide detectives’ interviews with the crane operator, Hugh Humphrey, 65, and others produced no indication that criminal negligence was a factor.

“The evaluation on what happens next belongs to the district attorney,” Robinson emphasized. “That’s their call, not ours.”

The police report will be forwarded to the district attorney’s office and OSHA officials, Robinson added.

The accident, the worst in Nassco’s history, occurred shortly after midnight Thursday when a crane-operated steel basket carrying 12 men fell nearly 30 feet to the deck of the combat support ship Sacramento. Four men died at the scene, and two others died Friday at UC San Diego Medical Center; their six co-workers were hospitalized for injuries ranging from minor cuts and bruises to serious internal injuries.

Focus on Crane’s Brake

Noting that the crane’s cable was intact after the accident, survivors and eyewitnesses have said they believe that the crane’s brake--which locks the 7-by-10-foot basket to the crane’s arm--either failed or was loosened through operator error, causing the basket to be dropped as it was being moved about 100 feet from a berthing barge beside the Sacramento to a pier.

Crane operator Humphrey, who had worked a 14-hour split shift before the accident, has told investigators that he could not have caused the accident because he would have had to perform two separate foot and hand maneuvers for the basket to be released.

Humphrey has been placed on paid leave since the accident “to give him time to get over this,” Nassco Vice President Fred Hallett said.

Shortly after the accident, the 175-foot crane was “moved to an isolated area, where it will be kept under lock and key” and guarded around the clock until the investigation is complete, Hallett added.

The probe, expected to last about three weeks, is being conducted by a 10-member team composed of three Nassco officials, three union safety representatives, two federal OSHA investigators and two Navy officials.

In line with Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller’s new policy of reviewing industrial accidents for possible criminal charges, the results of that investigation will help determine whether the district attorney launches his own investigation or files charges.

Basic Answers Sought

“We’re still waiting to get an answer to the basic question of what happened,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Massucco said. “Was it operator error or mechanical failure? What went wrong and what contributed to it, and could that or should that have been foreseen? I don’t know the answers to any of that now. All we have at this point is a lot of ‘could be’s.’ ”

The investigation will be the first major test for the new OSHA office in San Diego, which opened two weeks ago. Previously, local industrial accidents were investigated by OSHA’s Long Beach office.

Law enforcement officials and industrial safety experts also will be watching closely to see how effectively OSHA fills the void left by Gov. George Deukmejian’s decision earlier this year to abolish the state’s OSHA office.

Arguing that the state and federal offices duplicated efforts, the governor contended that eliminating the California OSHA office would save the state money without jeopardizing worker safety or the quality of investigations.

New System Scrutinized

“This will be our first chance to see how this new system works--or doesn’t work,” said Jan Chatten Brown, who specializes in industrial accidents as a special assistant to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

Partly because of the problems associated with moving into the new local office, federal OSHA investigators did not reach the shipyard until nearly eight hours after the accident.

Don Amos, district manager of the California Division of Safety and Health--the former state OSHA office--said fire officials notified him of the accident within half an hour. Amos then attempted to reach Jerry Ryan, acting area federal OSHA director, but couldn’t because Ryan had checked out of the hotel where he had been staying.

Because federal OSHA offices, unlike the former California counterparts, are not equipped with 24-hour answering services, OSHA officials did not learn of the accident until they reported to work Friday morning.

OSHA Delay Downplayed

Though most investigators prefer to reach the scene of an accident as soon as possible, OSHA and Nassco officials and others argue that the eight-hour time lag created no serious problems.

After the victims had been removed from the deck of the Sacramento, the scene was roped off so as not to disturb potentially important physical evidence.

Ryan said, “Whether we would have responded immediately even if I had gotten the call at 1 o’clock in the morning is debatable. We’re not in the emergency response business. That’s left to local authorities. Our first concern is, ‘Are any other people at risk?’ Our second concern is whether the accident scene might be changed, making it more difficult to reconstruct what happened.

“As long as there’s no problem in those two areas, there’s no need to get there right away. We can interview people and examine the scene just as well later, without getting in the way of police and medical personnel.”

But Chatten Brown, Reiner’s aide, said OSHA’s delay in dispatching investigators to the shipyard illustrates “the way things may happen on occasion, but not the way they should happen.”

“The general rule is you want someone at the scene ASAP,” Chatten Brown said. “Time can work against you by giving everyone a chance to think, ‘Why should I volunteer this information when it might endanger my job?’ ”

Ryan, though, said that possibility has not been a factor thus far in this case.

“We’ve been able to reach the people we needed to,” he said. “Besides, this is a case dealing with massive equipment that wasn’t going to disappear.”