Link to story

"I saw at least two people literally running for their lives from the oncoming ship," said passenger Shawn Atleo, who was on the bow of the 140-metre-long ferry. "They obviously heard the horn and I could see the look of shock on the man's face as he looked up, saw what was coming."

He added: "There were sailboat masts that were disappearing under the bow."

Hundreds of passengers were stuck on the ferry for hours and passengers aboard two other ferries bound for the mainland from Vancouver Island were stranded at Horseshoe Bay as the terminal was closed and no vessels were able to dock.

No one was injured, said B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.

The blaring ferry horn made staff at the Boathouse Restaurant look up in time to see the 7,000-tonne vessel careen into two fingers of the massive marina dock.

"It took out some big boats, sailboats 30 feet long," said cook Bryn McArthur.

"After it crashed we could hear the announcements telling everybody to get to the upper deck."
The 24-year-old prep cook has seen a lot of wild accidents and dangerous behaviour from the windows of the Boathouse that looks onto the bay, but nothing like this.

"I've seen piers light on fire, dead people pulled out of the water, but I've never seen a ferry plowing into the beach," McArthur said.

The ferry, which travels from here to Nanaimo, had an extensive, mid-life upgrade over a six-month period and only returned to service in mid-June.

The boat was carrying 544 passengers and 189 vehicles when it clipped a breakwater and a couple of pillars before slamming into the marina dock and running aground.

The chaos halted service at the terminal for hours. Passengers were stuck on board while investigators scoured the scene.
The ferry was eventually moved to a berth by tugboats so that passengers and vehicles could be unloaded.

Marshall said offloading of passengers and vehicles was completed at about 5 p.m.

Disembarking passengers were met with cheers as they regained dry land.

Terry Tebb, assistant commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, credited the captain for reacting quickly when he realized he had lost power.

"If he had slammed right into the big dock there would have been an awful lot of damage. Obviously, he did some fairly fancy maneuvering to minimize the damage," Tebb said.

B.C. Ferries president David Hahn refused to speculate on the cause of the accident or how the captain is handling it.

"I'd be guessing and I don't want to do that. I think he's in a state right now, obviously he's concerned," Hahn told reporters assembled at the Horseshoe Bay terminal.

"It just was an unfortunate accident but we've got to find out very clearly what went wrong."

Marshall said preliminary inspections indicate the ferry suffered some rudder damage as a result of the collision.

Jackie Miller, president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union, said the vessels have long had problems with their clutches.

"It's my understanding it didn't have anything to do with the steering gear. It was something in the main engine. It was something to do, we think, with the clutches.

"It's been an ongoing problem with the ships."

As the Transportation Safety Board, coast guard, police and fire officials all joined the investigation Thursday afternoon, another ferry suffered a radiator leak. The mechanical problem on this boat, travelling from Tsawassen to Swartz Bay near Victoria further delayed long-weekend sailings.

Tebb said all the owners of the shattered boats in Horseshoe Bay were contacted and accounted for except one. That owner's vehicle was not in the parking lot and it is believed he wasn't in the area at the time of the crash.

People at the ferry terminal and some watching from nearby houses said they think there was enough warning for people to get out of the way.

The horn was wailing and the ship was blasting warnings.

"We heard them say 'brace for impact, brace for impact, everybody sit down, brace for impact,' " said passenger Jonnie Tunnel from Nanaimo.

"Then they said 'we've lost power, sit down, brace for impact' and then we heard them say 'drop anchors, drop anchors,' and we just kind of drifted into the boat dock."

Liz Byrd and others in the ferry terminal watched sailboats being plowed under the hulking ferry.

"It was absolutely terrifying," Byrd said.

"We looked over and all we could see was sailboats, masts of sailboats just being knocked down. We felt terribly ill, we thought people were being killed. If it had gone into the terminal, it would have been a disaster. There were a lot of people in the terminal."

The owner of another restaurant that overlooks the harbour said the big ferry destroyed several boats before it stopped.
Gus Tsogaf of Bay Moorings Restaurant said he "started shaking" looking at the destruction.

The Salvation Army quickly set up relief stations outside the terminal, offering emotional support to onlookers and keeping emergency workers fuelled with sandwiches and coffee.

The accident comes as B.C. residents pack their cars and flock to the ferries for long weekend vacations.

B.C. Ferries had 125 sailings scheduled to move in and out of Horseshoe Bay over the Canada Day weekend, with Thursday afternoon predicted as the busiest travel time.

Ouch! And I thought some of my accidents were bad.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com

Turns out this whole calamity was caused when a 1.25" cotter pin was left off a nut by a maintenance contractor.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1120762872137_68/?hub=Canada