By Mark Edward Nero
A crew member of a container ship was found dead onboard a ship at the Port of Los Angeles, with the cause eventually being determined as blunt force trauma to the head after a cable broke on a ship while containers were being moved.
The body of the unidentified 39-year-old Filipino man, who was employed by German company Hamburg Süd, was found at 10:45 pm June 18. The estimated time of death was between 10:15 and 10:30 pm, according to port police.
The man was working on the Cap Posada cargo vessel, which originated in Vancouver, Canada and arrived at Berth 36 at the port’s TraPac terminal the afternoon of June 17.
The vessel departed for New Zealand on June 19 after a 10-hour delay as authorities investigated the matter.
The accident was the second serious incident within just a few days at the port. On June 16, a worker fell about 25 feet into the cargo hold of a ship docked at the port’s Berth 209, and suffered back and leg injuries.
The unidentified crew member, in his late 50s, fell into a small area two levels below deck of the 623-foot bulk cargo vessel Navios Vector, a Panama-flagged vessel, according to the Los Angeles Fire Dept.
According to LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey, the crew member injured on June 16 was rescued after about two hours, then taken to a local hospital for treatment of leg and back injuries.
