No charges filed in Filipino’s cargo ship death in the UK

The Moonray cargo ship where seaman Gerome Reyes of Batangas was crushed to death by a cargo elevator last May. SHIPSPOTTING

SAN FRANCISCO – No charges will be filed for safety failures that caused a cargo ship’s elevator to crush to death a Filipino seaman at a British port in May last year. A coroner ruled that the death was an accident.

Gerome Reyes, 26, died at sea aboard the Moonray, which just had left Southampton, UK docks bound for Lithuania.

Reyes, from Batangas, Philippines, was found crushed between the top of a goods lift and the underside of a deck on May 22 last year. A police investigation was launched but no action was taken against the ship’s owners.

At an inquest, lawyer for the Philippine Embassy, Dr Anton van Dellen, submitted an argument for unlawful killing by gross negligence.

Coroner Grahame Short, however, said there was no basis to support the argument that there was a case: “This was an accidental death, albeit a tragic accident. Mr. Reyes either forgot or more likely inadvertently touched the green start button as he reached for the contents of the lift, and was dragged into it,” the Southern Daily Echo in the UK quoted Short.