Coast Guard investigators on Sunday were trying to determine whether a cargo ship's speed and possible communication problems led to a collision that resulted in the San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades.
A preliminary Coast Guard investigation found that human error, not mechanical failure, caused the ship to sideswipe a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
"One of the things we are looking at, as with any investigation with the weather conditions we saw _ specifically heavy fog _ would be what speed was the ship traveling and was that appropriate given the visibility at the time," Coast Guard Cmdr. Brendan McPherson said Sunday.
The Cosco Busan's collision with the bridge Wednesday left a gash nearly 100 feet long on the side of the 926-foot vessel and ruptured two of the vessel's fuel tanks, causing about 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel to leak into the bay. The spill has killed dozens of sea birds and spurred the closure of nearly two dozen beaches and piers.
Investigators were focusing on possible communication problems between the ship's crew, the pilot guiding the vessel and the Vessel Traffic Service, the Coast Guard station that monitors the bay's shipping traffic.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Andrew Wood said because the ship collided with a fixed object offered clear evidence that a communication problem had occurred.
A language barrier between the vessel's pilot, Capt. John Cota, and the ship's all-Chinese crew was not likely a factor in the crash, since the ship's captain and officers are required to speak English, officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board arrived Sunday to launch its own investigation. The agency will look at everything from how fatigued the ship's crew and captain were to any mechanical or weather issues that may have been involved in the accident, said Debbie Hersman, an NTSB spokeswoman.
The NTSB's investigation, expected to take up to a year, also will examine the initial response by the Coast Guard and the company who owns the vessel, Hersman said.
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have both called for swift and thorough investigations of the spill, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency.
Feinstein met with Coast Guard officials Sunday and said the system for responding to spills needed to be improved, especially communication with communities where toxic sludge began washing up on beaches shortly after the crash.
"There were a lot of unusual things such as weather, but that should not excuse this," Feinstein said. "It's clear that the cities around the bay should have been brought into this faster than they were."
Feinstein said she was reserving judgment about whether criminal charges should be filed until the investigation is complete.
Rear Adm. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard's top official in California, defended the Coast Guard's response, blaming dense fog for delays that hampered efforts to launch helicopters and deploy cleanup equipment after the spill.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen was scheduled to arrive from Washington, D.C., later Sunday to take an aerial tour of the damage.
Efforts to clean up the mess intensified over the weekend. The Coast Guard increased the number of ships to 20 from 11 to work on skimming the oil from the bay, said Petty Officer Sherri Eng.
Nearly 20,000 gallons of oily liquid had been sucked up so far, and about 770 workers have taken part in cleanup efforts on the water and along beaches to mop up the damage _ a job that is expected to last weeks or possibly months.
Rescue teams raced to save hundreds of seabirds tarred with black shipping fuel. At least 60 birds were found dead while 200 live birds were recovered and sent to a rehabilitation center in Solano County.
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Associated Press writer Erica Werner in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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