A New Jersey man severely injured when a commuter ferry collided with a Wall Street pier earlier this month filed the first lawsuit against the boat’s operator yesterday — accusing the company of a string of failures that led to the crash.
Passenger Desmond Sullivan suffered broken bones, sprains, bruises and internal injuries after the vessel slammed into Manhattan’s Pier 11 on Jan. 9.
Sullivan said Seastreak “failed to insure the seaworthiness and adequacy of the vessel and its equipment,” according to the federal claim filed in Newark.
Sullivan was one of 93 people hurt when the 141-foot Seastreak Wall Street slammed into the dock at Pier 11 at the South Street Seaport at 8:41 a.m.
Sullivan’s lawyer, Andrew Buchsbaum, said his hands were legally tied after the company filed a claim in federal court seeking to limit its liability.