Court Finds City Fully Liable In Ferry Crash

The city could face tens of millions of dollars more in liability for a 2003 ferry crash that killed 11 people after an appeals court ruled yesterday that officials should have made sure the boat's pilot had a backup.

Even before the decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, the city had settled all but 59 of 186 personal injury claims for a total of $35.5 million. Nine of the remaining cases, though, involve deaths.

The appellate court found that the city was not entitled to limit its liability from the accident to $14.4 million, the value of the Staten Island ferry that smashed into a concrete maintenance pier at full speed with about 1,500 passengers aboard.

Its pilot, in the wheelhouse suffering from extreme fatigue and on painkillers, had become incapacitated.

The appeals court rejected the city's argument that it was general practice in the ferry industry to let pilots work alone, just as bus drivers and train conductors do. The judges said it would have been a "relatively small" burden on the city to take adequate precautions