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Post by Scott (Former Account) on May 20, 2011 16:56:01 GMT -8
From CFAX 1070: More information will be posted here as the story developes... It appears this incident may involve the Queen of New Westminster, as she is currently holding off of Berth 2. While in-service, she would use Berth 1.Queen of New Westminster is now holding in Berth 2. According to the latest news reports, it now appears no ferry was involved in this incident.
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 20, 2011 17:54:59 GMT -8
A pick-up truck that was in the holding-compound drove deliberately into the water. Likely a suicide (why else would someone deliberately drive into the water?)
- he drove at a high rate of speed up the berth-1 upper ramp, and into the water. This happened between sailings.
The above is per Mark Steffansen at BCF, from an interview on A-News.
Mark has watched the security-camera video, and the incident was clearly deliberate on the driver's part, to purposely pull out of the holding lane, and to drive into the water at a high rate of speed, crashing through the barriers at the end of the upper-ramp.
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mrdot
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Post by mrdot on May 20, 2011 18:33:26 GMT -8
:)well the cannucks are behind 3 nothing but thats no reason to go off the deep end! I think this has happened well before the game started, maybe the long wait, or he just missed the last sailing, and the dissapointment went viral! I've witnessed some very irate last cars at Swartz Bay the years I worked, way back then! :'(mrdot.
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 20, 2011 18:55:02 GMT -8
:)well the cannucks are behind 3 nothing but thats no reason to go off the deep end! I think this has happened well before the game started, maybe the long wait, or he just missed the last sailing, and the dissapointment went viral! I've witnessed some very irate last cars at Swartz Bay the years I worked, way back then! :'(mrdot. I think that this incident had nothing to do with the things that normally make people irate. - usually in a deliberate crash there are some deeper ongoing issues contributing.
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Post by ferryrider42 on May 20, 2011 19:47:39 GMT -8
Vehicle driven into water at Swartz Bay ferry terminalBy Judith Lavoie, Victoria Times Colonist © Copyright (c) The Victoria Times ColonistA white pickup truck sped along the upper ramp of one of the main docks at Swartz Bay ferry terminal, crashed through the barriers and plunged into the water late Friday afternoon. The truck soared about 30 metres through the air and then dropped into deep water and disappeared according to shocked witnesses. Fire, police and ambulance raced to the scene, but, shortly after the crash, no wreckage had appeared on the water. “I called 911 and they asked me (which service) I wanted them to send. I said ‘send everything, someone’s just washed themselves into the ocean,” said Jim Fryer of Brackendale, who was about 30 metres away from Berth 1 when the incident happened. B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said it is believed there was one male occupant in the truck. “All the emergency services are at the scene right now and we’ll have a statement later,” she said. No ferry was docked at the berth at the time, but the small Piers Island ferry was in the vicinity and circled around the area where the truck hit the water. “But nothing popped up,” Fryer said. Nothing could have stopped the truck because of the speed it was travelling, Fryer said. “He had his pedal to the metal. The only thing that could have slowed him down were the barriers and he snapped through those like nothing,” he said. “There was nothing anyone could do about it.” Peter Lim of Victoria was sitting in the area where dogs are kept when he heard the pickup truck banging up the ramp. “Then about 30 seconds later he crashed through the barrier,” he said. “I saw him racing, but I didn’t see him sailing into the water. He flew up at such a speed. He was going at 60 or 70 kilometres an hour,” said Lim, who was heading to Saltspring Island. Onlookers speculated that the crash was a suicide, but said they could not see if there were passengers. “I didn’t see anyone screaming out of the window or anything,” Fryer said. Michael Moore of Victoria said he believes the pickup truck was probably a 1988 or 1999 white Chevrolet three-quarter tonne. “He sped up the ramp and blasted through the gates and kept on going up the ramp to the second tier,” he said. The ramp is believed to be about 12 metres above the water. “He went in hood first, then he leveled off,” said Tony Silletta, another witness. “I’d say within 20 seconds, he was under. “I’m still kind of shocked. It was like a movie stunt,” said Silletta. B.C. Ferries said its vessels are continuing to sail, but not necessarily on time. www.timescolonist.com/Vehicle+driven+into+water+Swartz+ferry+terminal/4819605/story.html
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Koastal Karl
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Been on every BC Ferry now!!!!!
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Post by Koastal Karl on May 20, 2011 19:51:18 GMT -8
Looks like they found the body
Police divers have retrieved the body of a man after a truck appeared to have been deliberately driven off a B.C. ferry dock on Vancouver Island.
A white body bag was loaded onto a coast guard hovercraft at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, north of Victoria, at about 7:30 p.m. PT.
Witnesses said that at about 5:30 p.m., the vehicle drove through a barrier at high speed, proceeded along a lane used for loading cars onto ferries and flew off the ramp, plunging into the water.
Lyda Burchell was aboard a BC Ferry en route from Vancouver that was about 100 metres from the terminal.
"A small white truck … drove at full speed off the end of the dock," Burchell told CBC News. "It sank within, like, seconds."
Vehicles operated around terminals by BC Ferries employees are also white, but it's not known if the truck belonged to the ferry corporation.
The man was the lone occupant of the vehicle, which was submerged in about 10 metres of water, police said.
Swartz Bay, north of Victoria, is the location of the major ferry terminal on southern Vancouver Island.
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Post by glasseye on May 20, 2011 20:15:26 GMT -8
:)well the cannucks are behind 3 nothing but thats no reason to go off the deep end! I think this has happened well before the game started, maybe the long wait, or he just missed the last sailing, and the dissapointment went viral! Frankly that comment was in pretty bad taste. Unless the guy was an axe murderer there's no good reason to mock his death.
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mrdot
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Post by mrdot on May 20, 2011 20:34:41 GMT -8
:)well glasseye is quite rite, and I should spank myself if I meant to mock this poor individual, but I did not intend to give that impression, once again my biggest mistake is not sticking to purely marine matters, a hockey game, how trivial, and yet we can get so worked up on things that don't matter in the big picture! :)mrdot.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on May 20, 2011 21:18:11 GMT -8
BC Ferries news release regarding this incident.
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piglet
Chief Steward
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Post by piglet on May 20, 2011 22:05:26 GMT -8
According to CHEK news they have footage of the truck going up and off the ramp and will be releasing it in the future. Should make all the gouls happy Im sure. Im just glad that if the driver felt the need to do it, they didn't take anyone with them.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on May 20, 2011 22:27:32 GMT -8
Im just glad that if the driver felt the need to do it, they didn't take anyone with them. Very true, Piglet.
The SOVI has returned to Swartz Bay and has tied up for the night at Berth 1. The truck still remains there, so I guess they are in no rush to remove it.
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 21, 2011 3:35:27 GMT -8
According to CHEK news they have footage of the truck going up and off the ramp and will be releasing it in the future. According to Mark Steffanson at BCFerries, them seeing the security video removes the doubt that this somehow could have been prevented. There may be comments from some people (I'm talking general population) that demand to know how this thing could have been prevented. - some things can't be prevented, if the person is determined enough to do something. From what Mr. Steffanson (who has seen this video) has said, it appears that BC Ferries couldn't do anything to prevent this. - I hope that there are no unreasonable measures recommended to further protect the public from their own misguided intentions or recklessness. ....and by that, I mean that you can prevent innocent accidents (or at least reduce the risk) but its tough to prevent something deliberate where someone intends to only harm themselves. Otherwise, there's be no one allowed outside on-deck on a moving ship, in order to prevent the risk of someone jumping. I would also suspect that the officials who have to view this video will find it very disturbing. I wish peace to the terminal workers, the rescue workers, the other travelling public and to the person's family.
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Post by lmtengs on May 21, 2011 5:12:36 GMT -8
If they are determined to up the security after this incident, what might be some potential measures?
I know they already have chain-link fence barriers along the lower decks of berths, but do they have them on the upper ramps? If not, they could install these, and they would make it harder for somebody to gun it off the ramp.
Some kind of raised curb in between each vehicle lane, so that vehicles can not merge out of their lane, which may have contributed to this incident. Note that this could be a bad idea, because when vehicles break-down in line, drivers have no way to get around them.
Retractable spike-belts at the land-end of each berth ramp, which retract when a ferry enters the berth and a worker manually clicks a button to lower them. They have these in the exits of Disneyland parking lots, believe it or not.
Any other suggestions?
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piglet
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Post by piglet on May 21, 2011 7:45:58 GMT -8
The terminal workers who would not normally have to deal with situations such as these will have the worst of it. If you are expecting "nasty" situations like when you work ambulance you are at least prepared by knowing your going to see bad things but if your not its rough. I speak as a former ambulance staffer. If one were to have sliding concrete jersey wall that could roll out to close off the ramp it would stand a chance of stopping a pick up but almost any metal "fencing" would get mowed down by a fast moving truck. If someone is determined to do something like this there is little we are going to be able to do to stop them usually. At some point we have to understand this point. We just have to do our best to prevent the "average", spur of the moment attempt, but someone who is determined is usually going to succeed it is an unfortunate fact of life as was pointed out in my EMR course right at the start. As Keenleyside said its the terminal staffers and the families we should feel for.
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on May 21, 2011 8:15:19 GMT -8
I love how the media always screw things up and have no idea about which ship is which as I watched the news last night and they said after the Coastal Celebration left which was actually the Spirit of BC. But anyways is berth 1 closed as I thought I heard on the news or somewhere they said it was closed so berth 2 must be fixed then???
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Neil
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Post by Neil on May 21, 2011 9:17:18 GMT -8
I love how the media always screw things up and have no idea about which ship is which as I watched the news last night and they said after the Coastal Celebration left which was actually the Spirit of BC. But anyways is berth 1 closed as I thought I heard on the news or somewhere they said it was closed so berth 2 must be fixed then??? I doubt that it matters to anyone outside of maybe five or six people on this forum what ferry had just left. There aren't many ferry nerds in the media. I agree with Paul and Mr Horn- there aren't really any lessons to be learned here, and nothing to fix. There are people in such desperate straits that all the expensive barriers and obstacles at ferry terminals, bridges, or skytrain routes wouldn't deter them. They'd find a way out, and the unfortunate thing is that anyone witnessing it has to be a part of their pain.
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Post by Scott (Former Account) on May 21, 2011 13:05:46 GMT -8
Information from News 1130: [/u] Autopsy expected next weekSIDNEY (NEWS1130) - Investigators have spoken with the family of a 29-year-old man who died after driving his truck off a BC Ferries ramp Friday afternoon. An autopsy is expected in the next couple of days. Corporal Kerry Howse with Sidney RCMP says they're getting a better idea as to what caused the man to drive off the ramp in front of horrified passengers. "It's not an accident. It looks like it may be an intentional act to hurt himself... to harm himself, it appears to be." He adds the man's family is having a hard time coping with the news. "It's a difficult situation for them, it's their son. It's something that's going to be hard to deal with and they're going to have to come to terms with it." Around 5:30 p.m. the man sped through the barricades at the Swartz Bay terminal on Vancouver Island and plunged into the water. There was no ship at the dock at the time.[/size][/quote] www.news1130.com/news/local/article/229776--police-believe-man-meant-to-hurt-himself
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Post by hwy19man on May 21, 2011 14:19:46 GMT -8
Unfortunate news about this. Thankfully no one else was hurt. Sympathies go to the victim's family.
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Post by Scott on May 21, 2011 15:54:15 GMT -8
Has this happened before? If it has, only once or twice. I hope they don't go overboard trying to prevent this once-or-twice-in-50-years thing from happening again. I mean, someone could probably do this off most of the ferries if they really wanted.
My family and I were at Ruckle Park yesterday when it happened. You actually have a perfect view of Swartz Bay from there, although you'd need binoculars to see a truck drive off a ramp. I didn't hear about it until around 7 or 8, but we did see the coast guard and hovercraft race by the park around 6. After I heard it on the news, I watched the Spirit of British Columbia go in and dock at Berth 2. They sailed her in by the route she usually departs Swartz Bay - which meant the last few ferries of the evening went by Ruckle Park closer than they would have otherwise.
We actually used that very ramp at 10:30 that morning to disembark the Spirit of Vancouver Island.
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Post by Curtis on May 21, 2011 17:07:57 GMT -8
As far as we know this has happened once in the 60s or 70s according to the Bannerman Book. Hence why all 'V' / 'B' Ferries sail with their rear doors closed on the Major Routes. I could see better barriers being put in as a byproduct of this incident.
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Mill Bay
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Post by Mill Bay on May 22, 2011 14:58:41 GMT -8
As far as we know this has happened once in the 60s or 70s according to the Bannerman Book. Hence why all 'V' / 'B' Ferries sail with their rear doors closed on the Major Routes. I could see better barriers being put in as a byproduct of this incident. The Bannerman book describes two incidents in which a people deliberately backed vehicles off of ferries while underway: one incident being an amphibious car meant as a prank, although I'm sure even in the 60s and 70s there might have been repercussions for such humor. The other incident was apparently a man who deliberately drove backed off the ferry apparently with the intention of committing suicide. Although the Bannerman book is not necessarily either scholarly, or actual incident reporting, these incidents could potentially be confirmed through other sources as well. The Bannerman book also describes a couple accidental losses of vehicles overboard due to deliberate overloads on ferries during the Black Ball days, which may or may not be apocryphal. In addition, there have been the several more critical situations with vehicles falling from ferries at the ramp during loading, some also involving loss of life. In any case, the latest news report I caught stated there will be no release of video footage to the public out of respect for the family of the deceased victim. In this case, I find this to be a very human and compassionate gesture on the part of the large corporation, and it shows a great deal of candor in BCFerries handling of the incident. As can be well expected, footage of such an incident would very quickly be flashed across TV screens if released. I would agree, however, with the notion that the best preventative measure BCFerries can do, would be to always ensure an empty berth has its ramps lift in a raised position to thwart any vehicle driving up them -- the ramp was lowered right down to the water level after the incident to facilitate rescue and recovery personnel. I think that this is sometimes done, but I think more likely it is a the discretion of terminal crew in the particular day, and also due to consideration about the next position the ramp will need to be at given tide conditions and the next vessel to be in the berth.
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Post by glasseye on May 22, 2011 20:26:52 GMT -8
Aside from raising the ramps, BCF could block unused berths at major terminals by parking terminal vehicles (e.g. a drop trailer tractor or two) on the ramp approaches. A parked vehicle might make a bit more of a psychological deterrent than a thin raised ramp.
I don't think the frequency of suicides by ramp is high enough to justify taking preventive measures, however.
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 25, 2011 18:15:50 GMT -8
From a Times-Colonist news story on the suicide at Swartz Bay:
- quote from the family of the deceased:
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