Ferry Crash: It's Nobody's Fault

[dreissig]

Everyone involved in the Staten Island ferry crash has lined up a good excuse. Richard Smith, the assistant captain who was at the wheel when the boat slammed into a pier, is likely to claim he blacked out from some previously unknown physical condition. Michael Gansas, the captain who was not in the pilot house, will blame the Department of Transportation for not informing him that he was supposed to be there. And don't expect much blame to fall on the well-connected Iris Weinshall, the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation. Her husband is Chuck Schumer, the senior Senator from New York.

As things now stand, nobody will be responsible for the tragedy that killed 10 people and maimed several others. New York City commuters will be told that it's just one of those things.

[mmm]

1. What? Are you saying accidents don't happen?

Docking a ferry of that size is not like parking a car.
The biggest boat I have taken into port was only 48 feet.
Even a boat that size is damn hard to dock when seas are rough or
fog is heavy.

[dreissig]

2. Not That Kind of Accident

The boat was going at full speed when it hit a maintenance pier 200 yards away. This doesn't happen because of human error; it happens as a result of total negligence.

There's lots of room for error in docking those boats, and there are 600 dockings a week, 52 weeks a year. Smith was asleep at the wheel, and the entire crew was below deck.

There is lots of blame to go around, but the way things are shaping up, nobody will accept blame - not the DOT, not the Coast Guard, not the crew, not the captain. New York commuters are told: Shit happens.

[maxsolomon]

3. someone has to ASSIGN blame then

and the buck stops with cap'n awol

[dreissig]

5. Find a Scapegoat?

A dozen ferry captains have now signed a statement to the effect that they were never told to be in the pilot house when the boat is docking. This makes it difficult to prosecute Michael Gansas for failing to be at a place of duty that was not specified in the regulations. If Gansas was not AWOL, the blame goes higher up.

Since the next level up is a Senator's wife, I don't see that happening either. Shit happens, I suppose.

[leftofthedial]

4. quit whining

you could be in Iraq

If the captain gets off, I'll be surprised.

[dreissig]

6. Dodging Blame

The Department of Transportation is taking steps to ensure public safety, but this is after years of neglect.

New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall announced that DOT is continuing safety improvements at the Staten Island Ferry by hiring a preeminent Federal maritime transportation group to review all existing Ferry operations.

Commissioner Weinshall said the Global Maritime and Transportation School (GMATS) - the professional and education training arm of the United States Merchant Marine Academy - will begin its assessment of Ferry operations on Monday, November 3. GMATS has agreed in principal to a contract with the DOT.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/pr2003/pr03_131.html

At the same time, it's coming out that what Gansas did was not exceptional, and that his supervisors were aware that not being in the inbound pilot house was a common practice. This makes it difficult to convict Gansas of being AWOL:

Ferry workers agree that a captain is ultimately responsible for his boat, but that transportation and investigation officials are unfairly portraying Gansas as uniquely negligent. They say Gansas was only doing what generations of captains had done before Oct. 15, and that the practice by the captain and assistant captain of keeping to opposite pilothouses was well-known to ferry supervisors.

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/106847559546660.xml

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Absence of blame seems common in ferries

In the 1980s, 197 people died when the car ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise" (with a name like that, you know the owners were major supporters of the Tories) capsized, having set sail without closing the bow doors. Although the inquest decided the deaths were 'unlawful killing', no prosectution succeeded. The fact that it's damn obvious that you shouldn't do something like that didn't seem to matter - since no-one had the explicit responsibility for closing them, and no company director had explicit responsibility for ensuring safety in the company, they all got off.

The company changed its operating name from Townsend-Thoresen shortly afterwards, to avoid the bad publicity, and is now the biggest ferry operator across the English Channel.