Seastreak Wall Street’s captain said he had no time to warn passengers before his ferry slammed into a downtown dock, federal investigators reported yesterday.
In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board says Capt. Jason Reimer said an equipment failure kept him from controlling the boat’s speed as it headed for Pier 11 on the morning of Jan. 9.
Moments before the accident, Reimer said, he succeeded in reducing the ship’s speed from about 35 to 14 mph.
He tried at two separate consoles to reduce speed further before it hit — but the controls did not respond, Reimer told the NTSB.
The ferry slammed into the dock at about 14 mph, investigators say.
The crash seriously injured one passenger, and another 84 people, including a deck hand, suffered minor injuries.