miércoles, 9 de enero de 2013

A New York passenger ferry has hit a dock during the Manhattan rush hour ... - BBC News

The BBC's Clive Myrie describes the scene of the crash

A New York passenger ferry has hit a dock during the Manhattan rush hour, injuring 57 people and tearing a hole in the vessel's bow.

Two people have been critically injured, the Associated Press reports.

The Seastreak Wall Street ferry hit the mooring as it docked about 08:45 (13:45 GMT) after a trip from New Jersey.

The ferry, which was carrying about 340 passengers and five crew members, was able to dock and witnesses say people rushed to disembark.

Of the 57 people injured, two were in a critical condition and 29 had minor injuries, New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told reporters.

She said the boat had struck the dock at about 10-12 knots (11.5mph - 13.8mph; 18.5km/h - 22.2km/h).

The most seriously injured passenger is believed to have hit their head after falling down some stairs as a result of the crash, the Associated Press reported.

The BBC's Barbara Plett says Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan has not closed as a result of the collision, avoiding a major disruption to water traffic.

"We don't know what happened," a still-bleeding passenger told the New York Daily News.

"The boat hit something, and we went flying. People were bleeding all over the place."

A woman who witnessed the crash from the dock told CBS News the 140ft (43m) vessel did not appear to have been coming in at high speed, but said "it was a very hard hit".

"It had pulled in - starting to pull in - and what it did was it hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb," Dee Wertz told the television station.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has visited the scene of the crash, along with senior police, fire and emergency management officials.

Manhattan, an island, is served by several commuter ferry lines, the largest of which brings passengers from the Staten Island borough.

In 2003, 11 people were killed and dozens injured when a Staten Island ferry boat crashed into a pier on Staten Island, across New York Harbor from Manhattan. Dozens more were injured in a State Island ferry crash in 2010.

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