According to a July 14 Associated Press report, a federal program to recruit more tugboat pilots may have backfired by allowing thousands of novice captains to take the helm, contributing to a 25 percent increase in the number of accidents on the nation's rivers. An Associated Press review of Coast Guard records indicates that the U.S. tugboat fleet is increasingly piloted by captains who have spent as little as one year in the wheelhouse.
(Source: Associated Press)