Oakland Port Closed Following Death

The entire Port of Oakland shipping operation remains shut down, idling hundreds of port workers and truck drivers, while an investigation continues of the accidental death of an ILWU Longshoreman aboard a ship at the Port Monday afternoon. The Alameda County Coroner's office said the worker was apparently struck by a shipping container as he worked aboard the Stutgard, a Hapag-Lloyd container ship. No one apparently witnessed the accident. Many customs and security offices were also closed. The backup will not only mean congested terminals when the port operations resume, but the shutdown will be felt in distribution centers in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere, where warehousing facilities continue to operate, Taylor said. The 759-acre Port of Oakland complex was visited by nearly 2,000 cargo ships in 2006. The port is the fourth largest container port in the United States and handles 99 percent of the containerized goods moving through Northern California. [Source: Wire Services/The Mercury News]