By Jill Colvin, Julie Shapiro and Leela de Kretser
DNAinfo Staff
STATEN ISLAND — Dozens of people were injured Saturday morning when a Staten Island Ferry boat slammed into a pier after its braking system appeared to fail just before it reached land.
The Andrew J. Barberi ferry, the same one involved in a deadly 2003 crash, hit the St. George pier at 9:25 a.m., according to authorities at the terminal. There were 252 passengers and 18 crew members aboard.
Passengers said the ferry staff tried to warn them about the crash and shooed them away from the front of the boat moments before impact.
"Someone was yelling, 'Red, red,'" said Alicia Eason, 26, of Tennessee. “One of ferry workers yelled 'Brace yourself!' A millisecond later there was impact."
Officials from the Department of Transportation praised the quick work of the ferry's captain, who they said "sounded the whistle repeatedly to sound the alarm, alerting crew members to move passengers away from the ferry's outdoor decks, preventing potentially serious injuries."
Witnesses and passengers reported that the boat appeared to speed up as it approached the dock. Authorities said Saturday that the ferry was traveling 5 knots, or just under 6 miles per hour, when it hit.
The accident appeared to be the result of a mechanical problem, resulting from a failure in the ferry's throttle right before docking, the head of the city's Department of Transportation told the Associated Press.
As a result, the crew was unable to use the engines to slow down, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said.
The exact cause of the malfunction is still under review by the DOT and the Coast Guard, the DOT said.
Fourty patients were admitted to Richmond University Medical Center with minor injuries, a hospital spokesman said.
Most of the injuries were neck and back injuries and bruising, a hospital spokeswoman said.
One woman aboard had to be hospitalized for chest pains "unrelated to the accident," an FDNY spokesman said.
Passengers who escaped injury said the scene after impact was one of confusion.
"A lot of people had injuries, people bleeding from the head," said Dwayne Forrest, 47, of Knoxville, Tenn.
Some of the injured passengers had to be taken off the ferry on stretchers, while others were given neck braces and oxygen masks, witnesses said.
Passengers praised the quick action of the emergency responders who came on board. Emergency crews loaded ramps from the dock to the boat, and led passengers who could walk to solid ground, witnesses said.
"There were a lot of firefighters, a lot of police trying to get people taken care of," Forrest said.
During the previous Staten Island Ferry crash on Oct. 15, 2003, 11 people died after the captain passed out at the helm due to a combination of extreme fatigue and painkillers. The Andrew J. Barbieri ferry needed a multimillion-dollar renovation before it could return to service, the AP said.
The Barbieri passed three inspections in the last year, including one as recently as last month, the DOT said.
Crews un-wedged the ferry from the terminal's slip around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. There were two punctures in the ship's hull, and damage to the vessel was clearly visible as it was led from the pier by two smaller boats. The ferry has been taken out of service, the DOT said.
On July 1, 2009, another ferry boat lost power and hit the pier on the Staten Island side, injuring more than a dozen passengers, the AP reported. Officials said a transformer failed, losing power in the engines.
Francine Hardy, 43, was waiting for the ferry on Staten Island when she saw the boat crash.
"It looks terrible over there," Hardy said. "The boat is damn near on the dock. It's not a pretty sight."
Passengers lined up in the terminal to use other ferries, as service resumed around 11 a.m. Saturday.
"I've been taking this boat nearly all my life," said Matthew Albert, 17, a student from Staten Island.
"There's always been accidents here and there," he added. "I'm not surprised."
Robert Caruso, who lost three friends in the 2003 Andrew J. Barberi crash, said he was shocked by the latest crash.
"I was totally freaked out. I thought, 'It's not the Barberi.' And it was," said Caruso, 71, as he waited for a Manhattan-bound ferry, "That boat is cursed."
