After a boat accident, the ferry terminal in Seattle was shut down
According to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Washington State Ferries Twitter account, a ferry smashed into a section of the Seattle ferry terminal that helps direct boats known as a “dolphin,” on Thursday, putting the station out of commission.
“The Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal is out of service until further notice following a hard landing by the Cathlamet,” WSDOT said on its website.
“The Issaquah will be the only boat on the route for now and will continue service between Southworth and Vashon. The boat will not operate on its regular schedule and just load vehicles before departing to its next destination to move as much traffic as possible.”
The Cathlamet, according to Washington State Ferries spokesman Ian Sterling, suffered “hard landing” after a “significant and serious damage,”
According to Sterling, “It’s not something that we ever want to see happen, and obviously a scary situation for both passengers and crew,”
The crew has been tested for drugs and alcohol, which is typical protocol, according to Sterling.
“And we’re working with our federal partners and others to really investigate what happened here. We want to know so it doesn’t happen again,” Sterling said. “This is a really rare occurrence at Washington State Ferries.”
The ship will be out of service for several months while it is being repaired, according to Sterling.
Terra Schaller and her wife Roberta Christensen were in their automobile on the ferry’s upper deck when the deck fell across from them.
“It was a hard hit, cars all surged forward and I could immediately see from where we were that something was cutting into the metal deck. Or it was folding for a very bad reason,
The 911 dispatcher called Christensen after Christensen rushed out to see if anyone needed help.
When the crew finally docked, there were no warning sounds, according to Christenson.
She claimed that as they drove away, firefighters and paramedics got out of the car and walked onto the boat.
Christensen, an island commuter, says she uses the ferry multiple times a week.
Things are about to get a lot messier now that we are down to one boat schedule,” she remarked.