Merchant Seaman Critically Hurt on Ship

A gruesome accident aboard a cargo ship in Los Angeles Harbor left a merchant seaman from Huntington Beach clinging to life Saturday.

August Benz, 67, was critically injured at Berth 302 about 10:45 a.m. when his left leg was nearly severed aboard the President Kennedy, owned by American President Lines, authorities said.

Benz was working several stories above the deck scraping paint from the ship’s fixtures, fire spokesman Brian Humphrey said. Benz was bracing his leg against a steel track used by an on-board crane, Humphrey said.

The worker apparently didn’t realize the crane was moving in his direction before it rolled over his leg, crushing it just below the hip.

The accident triggered a dramatic rescue by co-workers, who within minutes freed him from the machinery, placed him on a gurney strapped to a crane and gently lowered him to the Terminal Island docks and the open doors of a waiting ambulance.

“We can certainly credit the longshoremen and the merchant seamen for their efforts to get him off the ship so quickly and deftly,” Humphrey said. “It was an incredible operation.”

Although rescuers had worked quickly, the victim’s loss of blood was so severe that he stopped breathing and had no pulse en route to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach. However, paramedics were able to revive Benz before his 11:27 a.m. arrival at the hospital to a trauma team of surgeons, Humphrey said.

“We did everything we could to keep him alive,” he said. “What happened with this man would put the TV series ‘ER’ to shame.”

An official with American President Lines did not return calls for comment about the accident. The longshoremen’s union said the man was not assigned to the ship by the union and declined to discuss the incident further.

A St. Mary’s spokesman said Benz remained in critical condition late Saturday.