New York Staten Island ferry hits pier - Polidicks

[QUOTE]A ferry has crashed into a pier on New York's Staten Island injuring at least 60 people, officials say. Emergency services are attending but it is not believed that any of those injured has been seriously hurt. In 2003, 11 people were killed when the ferry Andrew J Barberi crashed into a pier on Staten Island. In the latest incident the ferry, which connects the island with Manhattan, is reported to have hit the St George Ferry Terminal on Saturday morning. A New York City Police Department (NYPD) spokesman told the BBC that the ferry had made a "hard landing". The city mayor's office said the injured were being taken to nearby hospitals. I heard over the loudspeaker someone say 'brake, brake,' and it just bounced off Ferry passenger A spokesman told the BBC it was "definitely" an accident, but wouldn't speculate as to the cause. The NYPD says there were between 200 and 300 people on board. Police and fire department officials say they are unsure how severe the accident was or how much damage was done to the ferry, AP news agency reported. One witness, Antonina Rose, said ambulances were at the Staten Island terminal, the New York Times reported. "I felt this big boom, the whole building was trembling," she said. Another passenger, quoted by Reuters, said the ferry was going too quickly as it approached the dock. "I heard over the loudspeaker someone say 'brake, brake,' and it just bounced off," he said. The Staten Island Ferry transports 20 million people a year between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. [/QUOTE] [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8669999.stm[/url] [QUOTE]NEW YORK — A Staten Island ferry with a history of accidents malfunctioned as it approached its terminal Saturday and smashed into a pier with a jolt that tossed passengers to the deck and hurt as many as 37 people. The accident happened at around 9:20 a.m. as the Andrew J. Barberi arrived at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island, carrying 252 passengers and 18 crew. Passenger Jason Watler, 30, of St. George, said he became alarmed when the ferry approached the shore faster than usual and ran toward the back of the boat. "It was not slowing down," he said. "He was going too fast." Then, he heard a "a real big boom." "I stumbled a little bit," he said. "People were screaming. People were crying." The accident appeared to be the result of a mechanical failure, New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said. The ferry's throttle failed to engage as it prepared to dock, she said, meaning the crew was unable to use the engines to apply reverse thrust and slow down. The cause of the malfunction is still unknown, she said. The ferry was moving at about 5 knots, or 5.8 miles per hour, when it hit. Coast Guard officials said the ferry suffered serious damage to its ramps and gouges in the decks above the waterline. Ramps on the pier were also damaged. The Department of Transportation described the damage to the vessel and terminal and slip as minor and said the Barberi would be taken out of service. The Fire Department said 17 passengers were initially taken by ambulance to hospitals, but that none had life-threatening injuries. Later, they said 33 had been checked out at hospitals, after first being treated at the scene. One person complained of chest pains. Two police officers providing ferry security were among the injured, officials said, but no crew members were hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the ferry accident. The Andrew Barberi was also involved in a 2003 wreck that killed 11 people. That accident occurred when the pilot, suffering from extreme fatigue and on painkillers, passed out at the wheel and the boat hit the terminal in St. George at full speed. The ferry returned to service after a multimillion-dollar rehabilitation. The pilot pleaded guilty to negligent manslaughter and lying to investigators. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The city ferry director was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to negligent manslaughter and admitting he failed to implement or enforce a rule requiring two pilots during docking. On July 1, 2009, a different ferry lost power and slammed into a pier at the St. George terminal, causing more than a dozen minor injuries among passengers. That accident was blamed on the failure of a transformer, which regulates power to the main propulsion engine. The ferry runs across New York harbor between Manhattan and Staten Island. Ferries landing at the terminal approach fairly quickly, then slow by putting the engines in reverse. The boat coasts into a U-shaped slip and workers extend large ramps that allow passengers to exit. Most passengers assemble at the front as the ferry arrives. According to city officials, the ferry captain had 15 years experience, but was newly assigned to the Barberi. They did not release the captain's name. The crash might have been worse if it had happened during rush hour rather than on a sleepy Saturday morning. The Barberi, an orange behemoth of a boat, can carry up to 6,000 passengers. The Barberi has had other problems since being put into service in 1981, including corrosion and a roach infestation. On its maiden voyage, it suffered a temporary loss of engine power and drifted into some mud near Governor's Island. The vessel passed annual inspections in 2009 and a quarterly inspection in April, according to the Department of Transportation. In Saturday's accident, Sadik-Khan said, the crew discovered the mechanical problem in time to alert passengers to brace for a hard landing and move back, although it is unclear how many heard or understood the warning. Dwayne Forrest, 47, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sitting in the front with of the ferry with his wife, Sheila. He said he heard a warning, buzzers sounded and then someone said "Red! Red! Red!" and about 15 seconds later, the boat hit. "It was a hard jolt. ... Luckily we were sitting down," he said. The Forrests were in New York City on vacation and were told they could get a better look at the Statue of Liberty if they rode the ferry. Alex Gonzalez, 36, of the Bronx, said the ferry appeared to speed up, rather than slow, as it approached the dock. He said the impact threw a woman and child standing near him about 10 feet. "It was the scariest thing of my life," he said. Service on the ferry line was suspended after the accident, then restored by late morning. The ferry itself was dislodged from the dock at the terminal about five hours after the crash, with the help of a tugboat, and taken to another nearby pier area. The crash will be investigated, Gov. David Paterson said at the scene. He said it was important for him to be on site after the events of the past week had raised tensions in New York City. "That's the byproduct of harmful acts, and it causes people to be worried about things like transportation," Paterson said. Associated Press writer David B. Caruso contributed to this report. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbasHCsbc_6hs2eMvAZScVb6r9_QD9FITLKO0[/url] [QUOTE]New York (CNN) -- A ferry boat that apparently had mechanical problems crashed into the Staten Island Ferry terminal Saturday morning, leaving at least 55 people injured, authorities said. One person was seriously injured, said Chris Gilbride of New York City's Office of Emergency Management, and was among the 18 victims taken to area hospitals. Thirty-seven others were treated on the scene, authorities said. The ferry boat, the Andrew J. Barberi, was the same vessel involved in an October 2003 crash that killed 11 people and injured 42, U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Barbara Miller told CNN. Later reporting from hospitals in New York gave conflicting accounts on the number of people injured. Spokesman Christian Preston of Staten Island University Hospital told CNN the facility was evaluating six adults and three children for non-life-threatening injuries, and a spokesman for Richmond University Medical Center said 28 people from the accident were being treated in the emergency room for mostly minor injuries. There were 252 passengers and 18 crew members on board the vessel during Saturday's crash, Miller said. Janette Sadik-Khan, a spokeswoman for New York City's Department of Transportation, said at a news conference that about one minute before the ferry reached the terminal, the captain sounded an alarm because he was unable to pull back on the throttle to slow down the boat. At that time, crew members tried to move passengers to the back of the vessel, said Staten Island Ferry Chief Operating Officer James Disimone. The boat was approaching the terminal at normal speed -- 5 knots, or about 5.7 miles per hour -- when the accident occurred around 9 a.m., Sadik-Khan said. "As soon as we got to the port it just slammed right into the dock and pushed everybody back. It was chaos, pandemonium. It was something like I've never been through in my life," ferry passenger Alex Gonzalez told CNN affiliate NY1. New York Fire Department Deputy Chief Bill Tanzosh said the impact left two breaches in the hull about 17 feet above the water line. One measured about 4 by 6 feet and the other was 4 by 4 feet, he said. Video from NY1 showed rescue workers at the scene, carrying people on stretchers. Five ferries carry about 65,000 passengers daily on a 5.2-mile run between Staten Island and the southern tip of Manhattan. About three hours after the accident, the ferry schedules were getting back on track, Sadik-Khan said. [/QUOTE] [url]http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/08/new.york.ferry.crash/[/url] Talk about pier pressure.

Oh man. I bet the drive is [I]ferry[/I] ashamed!

Ferry good driving there.

That ferry operator is in for a boatload of trouble.

He should have piered out the window to see where he was going.

Your puns all suck

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;21818426]Your puns all suck[/QUOTE] Yeah, these puns all hit rock bottom.

[QUOTE=Flitchaye;21818444]Yeah, these puns all hit rock bottom.[/QUOTE] I could do nothing to stop the flow of awful puns, it appiers.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;21818695]I could do nothing to stop the flow of awful puns, it appiers.[/QUOTE] dumb

Staten island is truly peerless.

Added more sources to OP.

oops?

Thats a [i]truckload[/i] of sources. Wait thats not a boat joke. :frown:

Hey I was on that ferry once.

Station Island? It's the columbian cartel ship from GTA III that you blow up with 8-ball!

[QUOTE] Then, he heard a "a real big boom." "I stumbled a little bit," he said. "People were screaming. People were crying."[/QUOTE] As I said in the other thread, the boat crashed probably because it was full of immature 10 year olds.

[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6139991/3.png[/img] Man, twice in just a few hours, they need to hire a new driver.