Ferries Collide -- Sealth, Kitsap Bump In Thick Fog

Two state ferries on the Seattle-Bremerton run collided in thick fog this morning at the east end of Rich Passage south of Bainbridge Island, the first such accident of its kind, according to the state ferry service.

Although there were no initial reports of injuries, a Seattle Fire Department aid car met one of the ferries, the Sealth, when it docked and picked up a woman passenger who complained of a back injury. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The radar systems on the two ferries have alarms that will sound when another vessel gets too close, but ferry officials said the alarms were turned off because in the crowded waters of Puget Sound, they would be going off all the time. The alarms are also not effective in such close quarters as Rich Passage, which is three-quarters of a mile wide.

The collision occurred shortly after 8:30 a.m. as the Sealth pulled over to let the ferry Kitsap pass, said Susan Harris, spokeswoman for the Washington State Ferries.

Harris described the accident as a minor collision.

The Sealth hit the Kitsap in midship, according to eyewitnesses.

The ferry system identified the captains as Mike Boyle on the Kitsap and Ron Hunter on the Sealth.

Boyle, rated by the Coast Guard as a vessel master since 1978, went to work for the ferry system in 1975.

Hunter, rated by the Coast Guard as a vessel master since 1968, went to work for the ferry system in 1947.

Armand Tiberio, acting superintendent of operations for the ferry service at Colman Dock in Seattle, said there is no reason to believe any of the equipment malfunctioned on either ferry. Both are equipped with radar.

`As far as I know, the captain and quartermaster were on the bridges of both vessels," Tiberio said.

Ferries call Coast Guard radar operators in Seattle each time they leave a dock, said Cmdr. Chip Sharpe, executive officer of the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service. This morning when the Sealth left the Bremerton dock, the Coast Guard radar operators alerted the captain that the ferry Kitsap was heading in its direction, Sharpe said. The two ships then communicated by radio.

Sharpe said he doesn't know why the vessels hit each other, but he noted that it is a relatively narrow passage and in the fog there could have been some confusion.

"Somebody blew it," he said. Jim Peterson, engineer aboard the Sealth, said the impact, as felt in the engine room, was almost negligible. He said at the time of the collision, he had been "backing down the engines," meaning that he was stopping the boat.

"It was no real big problem. We were almost dead in the water when we hit," he said in a telephone conversation from the engine room this morning.

The chief engineer on the Kitsap, who did not give his name, said in a phone interview that when the collision occurred: "We were watching the controls (in the engine room). There was a sharp crack and a bump."

Shortly after the collision, both ferries resumed their journeys, the Kitsap to Bremerton and the Sealth to Seattle. Harris said the boats would be tied up at least temporarily for inspections.

Auto-ferry service between Seattle and Bremerton was temporarily stopped because of the collision and as of midday, it was unknown when it would start again. Passenger-only service was still available, however.

When the Sealth docked in Seattle at 9:30 a.m., its bow deck plate was bent and there was a foot-and-a-half-long gash above the waterline, just left of the bow. The ferry was to be taken to a nearby shipyard for repairs.

The Kitsap suffered a deep, 10-foot-long scrape in the middle of the vessel above water line.

The crews were to be brought to system headquarters at the Colman Dock for interviews to determine how and why the boats collided.

All crew members were given breath-alcohol tests and all will be tested for drugs, according to ferry officials.

Rich Passage is a narrow and winding body of water between the south end of Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula. Much of the shore on the mainland is lined with homes.

Marine traffic in the passage is not covered by the Coast Guard's vessel traffic control system radar, which is designed to monitor only the vessels traveling in main traffic corridors of Puget Sound.

Normally, the eastbound and westbound ferries pass each other in Rich Passage on the routes between Seattle and Bremerton.

While today's collision appears to have been minor, the scenario is similar to what critics have warned the ferry system about in the past. September is known as the foggiest month of the year, and Rich Passage is one of the tightest channels - a waterway shared by ferries, freighters, Navy ships and thousands of pleasure boats.

"It may have been fog, but that's no excuse," said Ed Wenk, a University of Washington professor emeritus who has studied marine safety. "Both vessels should have had their radar operating, which would have unequivocally picked up the approach of another vessel."

Wenk has argued that a serious collision - and even a sinking - is inevitable in the ever-increasing traffic in Puget Sound.

The accident also raises old questions about lifeboats and other safety measures on Washington ferries. The ferry system has argued that providing enough lifeboats for all passengers would be costly and is not necessary because the ferry runs are all close to land. Wenk and other critics have argued that the lack of lifeboats could result in a disaster if a ferry were to sink following a collision.

Ferry system officials have said that watertight compartments and other design elements make the ferries virtually unsinkable.

Each ferry is equipped with radar and an alarm that sounds when another vessel gets too close.

However, ferry officers usually turn off the alarm systems because there are so many small boats near a ferry most of the time that the alarm would sound repeatedly, said ferry system Port Captain Jerry Mecham.

Mechan said that turning off the alarms is permitted.

Even if the alarms had been turned on when the two ferries collided, it wouldn't have helped, Mecham said. The ferries were too close to land, at the entrance to Rich Passage, when the collision occurred; the shore would have thrown off the radar alarm.

Unlike some ocean-going vessels, ferries do not have a full "collision-avoidance system," which uses a computer to track several nearby vessels at once and sets off an alarm when one gets too close.

Issaquah-class ferries like the Kitsap and the Sealth are maneuverable even at low speeds. The control systems allow the helmsman to quickly engage the propellers at either end of the vessel whenever they are needed. That's a distinct maneuvering advantage over vessels that have a propeller and rudder at only one end.

-- Times staff reporters Ross Anderson, Barbara Serrano and Eric Nalder contributed to this report.