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After a distracted pilot grounded the cargo ship Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay last March, the Maryland Pilotage Board passed a rule change prohibiting pilots from using their phones while on duty.
"The job of a state-licensed pilot requires absolute attention and focus on the job of safety piloting, navigating maneuvering, anchoring docking or undocking a vessel," board chairman Sandy Steeves told local media in a statement.
Maryland banned texting and driving in 2013, but it had still been technically legal to "text and pilot" merchant ships while in state waters. Last year, one pilot's ill-timed decision to use a phone put the containership Ever Forward aground on an oyster bank, where the vessel stayed for a month as salvors worked to free her.
After a distracted pilot grounded the cargo ship Ever Forward in the Chesapeake Bay last March, the Maryland Pilotage Board passed a rule change prohibiting pilots from using their phones while on duty.
"The job of a state-licensed pilot requires absolute attention and focus on the job of safety piloting, navigating maneuvering, anchoring docking or undocking a vessel," board chairman Sandy Steeves told local media in a statement.
Maryland banned texting and driving in 2013, but it had still been technically legal to "text and pilot" merchant ships while in state waters. Last year, one pilot's ill-timed decision to use a phone put the containership Ever Forward aground on an oyster bank, where the vessel stayed for a month as salvors worked to free her.
The Association of Maryland Pilots and the Maryland Board of Pilots did not have cell phone policies at the time of the grounding. The U.S. Coast Guard does not have formal regulations on cell phone use, though it "strongly recommends vessel owners and operators to develop and implement effective operational policies."
