Four Dutch crew members involved in a ship collision in Singapore have pleaded guilty for their role in the city-state’s worst oil spill in a decade, the Wednesday.
Richard Ouwehand, Martin Hans Sinke, Eric Peijpers, and Merijn Heidema admitted to failing to discharge their duties properly and pleaded guilty to one charge each under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, the newspaper said.
The sailors were on Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima when it struck bunker-fuel vessel Marine Honour at a shipping terminal in June 2024, damaging ten cargo oil tanks and necessitating repairs that could cost over S$6.6 million ($5 million). They are scheduled to be sentenced on April 2. Each of them can be fined up to S$50,000, jailed for up to two years, or both, the report said.
The spillage was carried by a tidal current as far as the east of the island for more than 30 kilometers (18 miles), leading to a clean-up that took over two months.
Photograph: Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima anchored off the coast of Sentosa island, Singapore, on Saturday, June 15, 2024. Photo credit: Suhaimi Abdullah/Bloomberg
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Flood Insurance Gap Will Squeeze Local Governments and Homeowners, Moody’s Says 
US P/C Rebounds to Post Q1 Underwriting Gain; Net Income Doubles 
KPMG Australia Scandal Widens After it Confirms Optus Data Was Misused 
More Americans Are Moving Away From Flood Risk Than Toward It 
