Overloaded Ferry in WA

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The Davy Crockett

The Davy Crockett

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Jan 3, 2011
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From this article at WTOP :

A Seattle-bound Washington state ferry mistakenly loaded with 484 more passengers than it was rated to carry had to return to the dock and leave the overflow at the Bremerton ferry terminal late Friday afternoon as Seattle Seahawks fans tried to reach an evening preseason game.Ferry staff apparently thought the Cathlamet could carry 1,600 passengers when its capacity is 1,200, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey said. In all, 1,684 passengers were loaded, so 484 had to leave, she said.
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A gotta love this next line:

Coursey said she couldn't explain the "misjudged capacity," saying the Cathlamet has been on the route all summer..
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Complacency could explain it... :)

The captain turned back after getting the total number of those on board, she said

Washington state Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson apologized to the inconvenienced passengers, promising a thorough review and adding that "everyone in the chain of command at Washington State Ferries responsible for this oversight will be held accountable."
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This is common in third world countries but rare in developed nations! At least the Captain realized it before a tragedy took place!

I've ridden those ferries many times and always thought they were operated safely!
 
Ferry passengers frustrated with recent problems
After weeks of repeated breakdowns and delays, some passengers are wondering what's going on with the state ferry system.

Friday night it was an overloaded vessel in Bremerton. Then there were weekend delays and a cancellation on vessels sailing from the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal.

Because of mechanical issues on the Evergreen State, they were on a two-boat schedule on the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route until further notice....

It's been a rough summer for the ferry system. Just last month the ferry Tacoma broke down off Bainbridge Island, stranding hundreds for hours.

When asked about the Tacoma, Saturday, a ferry spokesperson said there's still no repair plan.

And just a few weeks ago passengers on a ferry in the San Juan Islands had to don life vests after an engine problem....

We still don’t know what caused the confusion that led to Friday’s overloading incident. An investigation starts next week.
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Curious that a radio station in "the other Washington" is covering a story about the Washington State Ferries. Glad Charlie posted a link to a *local* source

The excuse that ferry workers didn't know the capacity of the boat is very troubling to me. They should know these boats inside and out. Period.

It took a two minute Google search for to find that the maximum capacity of this vessel is 1,200 and to discover that WSF has no ferry in their ENTIRE fleet that has a capacity of 1,600 passengers.

As I see it, the agency is plagued by three problems: a incredibly inconstant funding, a fleet that is way too small and aging rapidly and management by bureaucrats that know very little about operating a fleet of ships.
 
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Also, the normally conservative capacity constraints don't apply here. The Coast Guard has granted WSF a waiver to the SOLAS standards. That means that with 1,200 passengers on-board there are less life jackets and life rafts than a similarly sized vessel. They are allowed this exemption because these ferries ply what are normally very calm waters and they are never very far from their sister ships than can help in an evacuation. The one ferry in this class that is SOLAS complaint has a maximum capacity of 1,076 passengers.
 
rickycourtney said:
Curious that a radio station in "the other Washington" is covering a story about the Washington State Ferries.
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Umm... because it is news on an ALL NEWS station which actually reports news.
Glad Charlie posted a link to a *local* source
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While I agree the article Charlie cited has more information, nobody complained about the accuracy of the WTOP article. The physical location of the source for the OP is immaterial.
As I see it, the agency is plagued by three problems: a incredibly inconstant funding, a fleet that is way too small and aging rapidly and management by bureaucrats that know very little about operating a fleet of ships.
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Yep, the folks who let an additional 484 people aboard are blameless because their work situation sucks. Sounds like the reasoning of the type of employee who needs to find a new job, and probably will be needing a new job after this screw up. Maybe Amtrak is hiring.
 
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Now what was that famous line in the movie "Jaws"?

("You're gonna need a bigger boat") :p
 
The Davy Crockett said:
Umm... because it is news on an ALL NEWS station which actually reports news.
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The Davy Crockett said:
While I agree the article Charlie cited has more information, nobody complained about the accuracy of the WTOP article. The physical location of the source for the OP is immaterial.
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I know of WTOP. "All news radio" stations are unfortunately a dying breed. I grew up listening to another CBS Radio News affiliate, KNX in Los Angeles. They are a big part of why I got into journalism.
I guess I should have explained my "local" joke better. I actually work for KING (the local TV station Charlie linked to) and I have been helping to produce our coverage of the Ferry system's failures for the past couple of weeks.

The Davy Crockett said:
Yep, the folks who let an additional 484 people aboard are blameless because their work situation sucks. Sounds like the reasoning of the type of employee who needs to find a new job, and probably will be needing a new job after this screw up. Maybe Amtrak is hiring.
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I totally agree. There's no excuse for why these ferry workers didn't know their ship.Perhaps they can get a job working at Amtrak's yard in Chicago, sending out defective equipment.
 
rickycourtney said:
I know of WTOP. "All news radio" stations are unfortunately a dying breed. I grew up listening to another CBS Radio News affiliate, KNX in Los Angeles. They are a big part of why I got into journalism.

I guess I should have explained my "local" joke better. I actually work for KING (the local TV station Charlie linked to) and I have been helping to produce our coverage of the Ferry system's failures for the past couple of weeks.
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Ahhh... ...I did wonder why someone who usually make interesting, intelligent posts was saying what I mistakenly thought they were saying. Makes sense now! My apologies :hi:

I totally agree. There's no excuse for why these ferry workers didn't know their ship.

Perhaps they can get a job working at Amtrak's yard in Chicago, sending out defective equipment.
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Sadly, they might actually improve things in Chicago! :eek: :p
 
rickycourtney said:
Also, the normally conservative capacity constraints don't apply here. The Coast Guard has granted WSF a waiver to the SOLAS standards. That means that with 1,200 passengers on-board there are less life jackets and life rafts than a similarly sized vessel. They are allowed this exemption because these ferries ply what are normally very calm waters and they are never very far from their sister ships than can help in an evacuation. The one ferry in this class that is SOLAS complaint has a maximum capacity of 1,076 passengers.
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Upon further research, I was wrong about this...

The ferries do carry enough life jackets for the maximum amount of passengers. In the case of the Cathlamet that's 1200 life jackets. In addition to that, the ships also carry additional life jackets for children.

But when it comes to life rafts, the largest ferries only carry enough rafts for around half of the passengers. The thinking is that the other nearby ferries can be dispatched to a sinking ship and deploy their life rafts (which would provide enough space for everyone).

It's also worth noting that a ferry full of passengers is pretty rare. As of 2006, WSF said that boats have enough life rafts to carry everyone on board for 98 percent of peak, summer-season runs (these Seahawks game day runs tend to be the only ones where they hit passenger capacity).

There's also a few vessels that don't have SOLAS waivers and have to have enough life rafts for all passengers:

*Ferries that travel to Canada

*Ferries that operate on "single-boat" runs (there would be no ferry to come assist).

*Old ferries and small ferries (they need to carry at least four 150-person life rafts)
 
me_little_me said:
So who was kicked off? The last to arrive? The ones closest to the dock? It wasn't clear other than 100 volunteered.
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A few volunteered... but not enough.Eventually they sent state troopers onboard to "convince" more people to "volunteer." Thankfully, nobody had to be forcefully kicked off.

The silver lining is that all passengers who "volunteered" to get off, made it to Seattle in enough time to make it to the stadium for kickoff and they got a voucher for a free ride on the ferries another day.

Washington State Ferries also allowed everyone to ride home for free that night (fares are only collected from walk-on passengers as they leave Seattle) and added more runs so everyone could get home (or stay in Seattle later, if they wanted to.)
 
Update to this story... the state released a report saying that the ferry was never overloaded. Turns out the terminal staff in Bremerton used faulty hand counters. The counters may have skipped by as many as 5 or 10 per click. The terminal staff admitted they knew that some of the hand counters were prone to skipping.
 
Investigation: Seattle ferry wasn't overloaded

SEATTLE (AP) — A state investigation has found that a Seattle ferry that was forced to turn around before a preseason Seahawks football game last month wasn't overloaded, after all.
The ferry Cathlamet was en route from Bremerton to Seattle on Aug. 15 when the captain returned to dock over fears that it was overloaded by nearly 500 passengers. Some 484 passengers left the vessel before it disembarked again for Seattle.
But a report from the Washington Department of Transportation, released Monday under a public records request, said video surveillance showed about 1,073 passengers boarding before the ferry left Bremerton — below the boat's capacity of 1,200, and well below the 1,684 passengers officials believed were on board.
The investigation, completed Sept. 11, suggested that a malfunctioning hand-clicker used to count the passengers was to blame for the erroneous count.
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