Report on the investigation of the collision between Sea Express 1 and Alaska Rainbow on the River Mersey 3 February 2007 Marine Accident Investigation Branch Carlton House Carlton Place Southampton United Kingdom SO15 2DZ Report No 22/2007 September 2007 Extract from The United Kingdom Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2005 – Regulation 5: “The sole objective of the investigation of an accident under the Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2005 shall be the prevention of future accidents through the ascertainment of its causes and circumstances. It shall not be the purpose of an investigation to determine liability nor, except so far as is necessary to achieve its objective, to apportion blame.” NOTE This report is not written with litigation in mind and, pursuant to Regulation 13(9) of the Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2005, shall be inadmissible in any judicial proceedings whose purpose, or one of whose purposes is to attribute or apportion liability or blame. Further printed copies can be obtained via our postal address, or alternatively by: Email:
[email protected] Tel: 023 8039 5500 Fax: 023 8023 2459 All reports can also be found at our website: www.maib.gov.uk CONTENTS Page GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS SYNOPSIS 1 SECTION 1 - FACTUAL INFORMATION 3 1.1 Particulars of Sea Express 1, Alaska Rainbow and accident 3 1.2 Background 7 1.2.1 Sea Express 1 7 1.2.2 Alaska Rainbow 10 1.2.3 Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) 11 1.3