On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:21:24 -0700 (PDT), jamesgangnc
wrote:

It's hard to imagine tht these three guys could have all missed seeing
this bearing down on them. I can understand how the tug operator
might have missed seeing them.

One possibility is that the guys in the fishing boat were used to
seeing barges and tugs go by and didn't think anything of it.
Supposedly they were all experienced and fished in the same area
frequently. If the barges were outside of their normal track for some
reason they could have been caught by surprise.