US: A Staten Island ferry crashed into a pier yesterday afternoon as it was docking, killing up to 14 people and leaving many others severely hurt, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.
The three-deck vessel, carrying thousands of people from Manhattan to Staten Island, slammed into wooden pilings along the side of the dock. Some of the injuries were so severe that people lost arms and legs, police said.
As the accident happened in 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts, passengers crowding the deck waiting to disembark jumped for their lives. "There were a couple of people with amputations - legs and arms" and numerous fractures and lacerations said Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Lamberti. The accident occurred around 3:20 p.m. The Staten Island Ferry carries 70,000 commuters a day on the 25-minute free ride between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. Five boats make 104 daily trips between the two New York boroughs.
"There were numerous injuries like fractures and lacerations," said Ms Lamberti.
"There were a couple of people with amputations - legs and arms." Victims were taken to Staten Island University Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital as firefighters sifted through the rubble of one of the ferry decks.
"Everyone just jumped for their lives," passenger Bob Carroll told television station NY1. "It was like an absolute horror . . . The whole side of the boat looked like an opener on a can."
The ship, the Andrew J. Barberi, which can carry up to 6,000 people had just arrived on the Staten Island end of its run across the wide mouth of the New York Harbour. After the crash it drifted away from land before swinging back to the pier with a 40-foot gash visible on its side.
A witness Justin Girard, said that he saw smoke and heard screams after the orange-painted ferry crashed at the St George Terminal.
The front end of the ferry suffered extensive damage to the right side of its hull.
There was debris scattered for 400 yards around the damaged boat, said Coast Guard Chief Dave French. Some people were pulled from the water suffering from hypothermia. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left a baseball game at Yankee Stadium to rush to the scene. Ferry services were cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded at rush hour on both sides.
The ferry carries 70,000 commuters per day on the 25-minute free ride between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. Traffic was also temporarily suspended service on the lower level of the nearby Verrazano Bridge.
The last accident occurred in 1997 as a car plunged off the same boat as it was docking at Staten Island causing minor injuries to the driver and a deckhand.