Transportation Safety Board begins formal writing process this week
Victoria (11 July 2006) - The Transportation Safety Board hopes to have its final report on the sinking of the B.C. Ferries vessel Queen of the North ready by September.
Officials with the board are apparently anxious to establish a faster standard for issuing major reports by getting this one out within six months rather than waiting a year or longer to complete its work, as has often happened in the past.
The March 22 disaster claimed two lives when the ferry sank after ramming rocks at Gill Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Ninety-nine passengers, including 42 crew members, escaped, many aided by residents in the nearby coastal community of Hartley Bay.
The writing of the report is scheduled to start this week. The board's role is to assess circumstances surrounding the sinking and to report on safety lessons to be learned from it.
A preliminary board assessment associated the sinking with inadequate training of crew members by B.C. Ferries, the agency that runs the West Coast ferry system for the B.C. government.
Privatization of B.C. Ferries management, and the appointment of American businessman David Hahn to run the now-secretive system on behalf of the B.C. government, was a major and controversial move made by Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell during his first term in office.
A May 11 letter by the federal board to B.C. Ferries raised serious questions about the level of training that managers provided to crew members. The purpose of the letter was to alert management to take corrective measures without waiting for the board's final report. NUPGE
More information:
• Safety official stands by claim that B.C. Ferries was warned
• Former safety director sues B.C. Ferries for ignoring warnings
• B.C. ferry workers' union calls for safety audit
• B.C. Ferries failed to provide adequate training of ferry crew
• Ceremony marks sinking of Queen of the North
• Ferry and marine union gives credit to ferry crew
• Ferry with 101 passengers aboard sinks in B.C.
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