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NEW ORLEANS - The cargo ship that plowed into the Riverwalk shopping mall reinforced Rep. Billy Tauzin's conviction that the busy Mississippi River past New Orleans is dangerous and no fit place for riverboat casinos.
- ``There's no way you can stop a ship from losing power or losing steering. But why on earth would you want gambling boats full of people out in that traffic?'' the Louisiana Republican asked.
- ``Why would you put a (casino) boat in that location and then tell it to sail? The people on board don't have life jackets. They don't even know where the lifeboats are,'' he said after Saturday's accident.
- The Liberian-registered freighter Bright Field ground to a halt just 70 feet from the crowded Hilton Flamingo casino riverboat when it smashed into the wharf that holds Riverwalk.
- In addition to a strong current, the bend that the Mississippi River makes around New Orleans is one of the world's busiest ports, used annually by 6,000 large ocean-bound vessels and 120,000 tugboats that tow or push huge strings of barges as long as 100 feet.
- ``It's the busiest and most treacherous stretch of the river,'' said Coast Guard Lt. Verne Gifford.
- Tauzin has been concerned about the safety of riverboat casinos operating in the area since they were first proposed.
- ``We dodged a bullet this time in terms of a major riverboat accident,'' Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said Sunday. ``That boat (Flamingo) would have been a sitting duck had it not been for luck.''
- In 1993, Tauzin held a Coast Guard and congressional subcommittee hearing in Baton Rouge at which a parade of shipping officials said riverboat casinos posed an unnecessary risk in the area.
- During that hearing, Coast Guard Rear Adm. James C. Card testified that every seven days a foreign vessel loses steerage on the heavily traveled river.
- And during the period of 1983-93, Card testified, 37 percent of all river shipping collisions from its mouth to Baton Rouge occurred in the Algiers Point area of New Orleans _ near where Saturday's accident occurred.
- Safety planning for Riverwalk involved city officials plus maritime, police and fire experts, said Cathy Lickteig, a spokeswoman for Rouse Corp., the owner of the mall.
- Rouse also built Baltimore's 15-year-old Harborplace and Miami's Bayside, and neither waterfront development has had any serious accidents, Lickteig said.
- Although the Hilton Flamingo sits in the busy zone, other floating casinos have been kept away.
- The Coast Guard refused to let the Treasure Chest Casino anchor at Rivertown in Kenner, saying the location was too dangerous. The casino wounded up on Lake Ponchartrain, north of the city and away from the river.
- Both the Coast Guard and the Port of New Orleans vetoed a downtown location for Bally's Belle riverboat casino, and it also ended up on Ponchartrain.
- Tauzin is concerned about the potential for an even worse accident, such as a ship collision that might release poisonous clouds of toxic chemicals.
- ``It's a very dangerous river, next to a very populous community. We need to be constantly on guard.''
[12-16-96 at 14:17 EST, Copyright 1996, The Associated Press]
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