Dairyland sues boat company

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Oct 10, 1998

MADISON, Wis. -- U.S. marshals will not have to board and seize the American Queen when it docks this afternoon in Riverside Park for payment of damages the riverboat is accused of causing when it struck power lines to Dairyland Power Cooperative's Genoa power plant in 1995.

Despite obtaining a U.S. district judge's order on Thursday to seize the $10 million boat and turn it over to a liquidating firm, an attorney for Dairyland said Friday that unspecified alternative arrangements will be made regarding responsibility for the Oct. 28, 1995, crash between the American Queen and Dairyland's electric power lines.

"The seizure was allowed under maritime law, but we're making other arrangements," said Dairyland's lawyer, Stuart Mondschein.

Instead, Dairyland filed a civil lawsuit Thursday in federal court against the American Queen's owner, the Great AQ Steamboat Co., and its charter operators, the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. of New Orleans, La., seeking $416,188, the amount Dairyland claims the incident cost the utility.

Calls to American Queen's owners were not returned Friday.

According to the lawsuit, the American Queen's left smokestack struck two aerial power lines spanning the Mississippi River near Dairyland's Genoa power plant, the first accident involving the 161,000-volt lines since their installation in 1968.

The lines were visible to the boat's captains, Adrian Hargrove and William Keeton, and pilot, Richard Karnath, who had previously navigated this stretch of the river and knew or should have known that the boat's stack was higher than the transmission lines, the lawsuit says.

The American Queen's stacks are retractable to allow the boat to pass under bridges and other obstacles, but the stacks apparently were not retracted before the accident, a Dairyland spokesperson said.

The operators are accused of violating several federal navigation rules, including failure to maintain a safe lookout and operate at a safe speed, the lawsuit says.

The boat was southbound just after midnight on Oct. 28, 1995, and carrying 450 passengers when it hit the power lines. No one was injured in the accident that knocked out power to thousands of Dairyland customers in the area, some for several hours.