NYC Ferry Crash Injures 57 People

09 Jan, 2013

NEW YORK — An investigation was underway to determine why a high-speed commuter ferry slammed into a Lower Manhattan dock Wednesday, tearing open a section of hull and injuring 57 people, two critically.

Fire Department Commissioner Sal Cassano said 11 people were seriously injured after the Seastreak Wall Street ferry with 326 people on board, including five crewmembers, rammed into the dock at about 12 mph.

“The captain called out, screamed, “Call 911. Get ambulances here,'” said Dee Wertz, who was on shore awaiting the boat’s arrival. “It was really scary. And I take this boat every day.”

“We just tumbled on top of each other,” said passenger Ellen Foran, 57, of Neptune City, N.J. “I got thrown into everybody else. … People were hysterical, crying.”

Cassano said fire officials responded within three minutes of receiving the call. On the scene, 155 firefighters and emergency medical technicians assessed patients.

The Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. The Coast Guard said alcohol tests on the captain and crew administered after the crash came back negative. Results for the drug tests could take weeks.

Officer Sophia Tassy, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department, said the Seastreak Wall Street ferry, a commuter run from New Jersey to Lower Manhattan along the East River, crashed during a hard landing around 8:43 a.m ET. The ferry, which left Highlands, N.J., at 8 a.m., actually struck a loading barge that it was passing while trying to dock, Seastreak President James Barker told New York’s WNBC-TV.

There was a jolt when that occurred, throwing the people forward into their seats and the walls,” Barker told the station.

A statement on the Seastreak Facebook page said the vessel’s crew “immediately initiated emergency response procedures and authorities responded quickly.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those that were injured. Seastreak LLC will work closely with the Federal, State and local authorities to determine the cause of the accident,” the statement said.

Coast Guard records indicate that the same ferry has been involved in prior crashes, including one in 2009 when the vessel hit a New Jersey dock and tore a 2- to 3-foot gash in the starboard bow. A year later, a collision with a dock pile punctured a hole in the port side of the same boat.

After Wednesday’s crash, some patients were carried out strapped to stretchers, their heads and necks immobilized. About a dozen passengers on stretchers were spread out on the dock, surrounded by emergency workers. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on the scene.

Passenger Frank McLaughlin, 46, said he was thrown forward and wrenched his knee in the impact. He said some other passengers were bloodied when they banged into walls and toppled to the floor.

“It was coming in a little wobbly,” Wertz said. “It hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb.”

The waterside area in downtown Manhattan quickly filled with police, firefighters, transportation workers and media. News helicopters were flying overhead.

The Coast Guard said in a statement that investigations into the cause of such crashes typically require several months to complete.

Maritime lawyer John Hession, who was a lead counsel for litigation after a 2003 Staten island ferry crash that killed 11 people, said he doesn’t have all the fact yet, but that “you’d have to suspect there was negligence.”

Hession noted that it was a relatively clear day, and the ferry was equipped with modern equipment that would help to avoid a major collision.

The Seastreak ferry service offers high-speed catamaran services to points in Manhattan from central New Jersey with a fleet of five ferries, the company says on its website. Four of the ferries have capacities of up to 400 passengers and one with capacity of up to 149 passengers.

The ferry is considered high-end. It has a bar on board and costs a bit more than most ferries.

USA today

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