One way to prevent disastrous accidents, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill, is through proper enforcement of regulations established to prevent such incidents. Hand in hand with this enforcement is the often times the uneasy question of who is to blame. This post is focused on an objective analysis of the parties involved with the Exxon Valdez incident, not a casting of blame on any one party directly.
The book explains that ‘human error’ played a large role in the Exxon Valdez incident. I believe this is a very inaccurate statement. When I hear the term ‘human error’, I assume that the facts of the situation amount to no worse than negligence. ‘Human error’ involves mistakes based on information unknown to the parties involved, or actions the parties are incapable of performing. In my opinion, the Exxon Valdez incident involved a situation that was reckless at best. Collectively, it was a blatant disregard of facts known to the parties involved to have a great potential for danger. However, this does not solve our problem of who to blame. Therefore, we must move on to the individuals directly involved with the Exxon Valdez spill.
Without a doubt Captain Hazelwood has become the evil poster child upon which blame is cast. For starters, he commanded his ship under the influence of alcohol. He also acted negligently with respect to the orders he gave to his assisting officers, such as setting a reckless course for the ship to follow, increased speed in a dangerous area, and failed to follow Coast Guard procedure. Further, after the ship crashed, he took steps that likely aggravated the damage to the environment. This all looks pretty bad. However, every story has two sides. I have no doubt in my mind that the captain was likely under pressure from his superiors to meet certain expectations for the arrival of the ship’s contents to its destination.
That leads us to our next party, Exxon as a corporation. No doubt Exxon’s management procedures played a part in the Valdez oil spill. The book does not focus on, though I have read in other sources, that Exxon was aware of Captain Hazelwood’s issues with alcohol. Had they taken appropriate steps upon learning of these issues, this disaster may never have happened.
Third Mate Cousins also played a role in this accident. To begin with, upon realizing it was too dark to watch for ‘growlers’, which could cause the ship danger, he looked to the radar. Normally, I would think this would be a fine way of preventing an accident. However, in this case Cousins could not tell by the radar if any ‘growlers’ were a threat to the ship. If your two methods of seeing where you are going are failing you, maybe you shouldn’t be driving....just a thought. Further, Cousins expressed to Hazelwood on multiple occasions that he would be able to captain the ship. Obviously this was not the case. However, this point leads us back to the question concerning whether the expectations placed by Exxon on its employees were appropriate.
Next, we have Helmsman Claar. Claar obeyed two unusual orders from Hazelwood, despite finding the orders peculiar for the situation the Valdez was in. He increased speed and put the ship on autopilot per the captain’s orders. Clearly these actions bordered on reckless. However, Claar was merely following orders. Who was he to question the captain’s commands?
Finally, we get to Harbor Pilot Murphy. Murphy was the one individual whose sole actions could have prevented this accident. However, I personally find him to be the most difficult to blame. Murphy turned the ship over to Hazelwood despite smelling booze on his breath. Had he refused to do this, the accident would have never occurred. The book makes clear that Murphy, at least in my mind, wasn’t the problem here. The problem was in the situation Murphy found himself in. This situation should have never happened. The book states that a harbor pilot had never challenged a captain before. Who would when your future employment is so directly related to the captain’s perception of you and you have a family to feed? There was a clear lack of a safety mechanism here. Murphy should have been in a situation where he did not have to fear for his job by taking a stand against the captain. The fact that his dilemma was just the opposite is no fault of his own.
As you can see, placing the blame is no easy task. Though the fault of some individuals is much clearer than others, we may not always be able to decide upon whom to point the finger.
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