Ferry loses power, crashes in B.C.

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A 457-foot ferry lost power while docking Thursday and mowed through dozens of boats at a marina, running aground and leaving hundreds of passengers stuck for hours aboard the vessel at one of British Columbia’s busiest ferry terminals.

No one was injured when the Queen of Oak Bay, with 544 passengers and 189 vehicles on board, smashed into Sewell’s Marina, adjacent to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said.

The accident, however, smashed pleasure boats docked on two piers at the marina and closed the terminal at the start of the long Canada Day weekend, one of the busiest of the year.

Before passengers and their vehicles could be unloaded from the ferry, authorities made sure there were no casualties at the marina and that the ferry could be safely refloated.

The double-ended ferry, which was arriving at the terminal northwest of the city of Vancouver from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, had returned to service in mid-June after undergoing an extensive overhaul. The cause of the accident was not known and B.C. Ferries president David Hahn refused to speculate. “It just was an unfortunate accident but we’ve got to find out very clearly what went wrong,” Hahn said.

However, Jackie Miller, president of the B.C. Ferry and Marine Workers Union, said that class of vessel has long had problems with clutches.

Witnesses said the ferry’s crew began blowing the boat’s horn and crew members frantically warned passengers to brace themselves as the vessel approached the marina. People on the marina’s piers ran as the giant boat bore down on them.

“There were sailboat masts that were disappearing under the bow,” said passenger Shawn Atleo. The ferry clipped a breakwater and a couple of pillars before slamming into the marina dock and running aground.