Post by ferryfast admin on Mar 29, 2006 0:52:45 GMT -5
BC Ferries slapped with suit over sinking
SCOTT DEVEAU
March 28, 2006
Globe and Mail Update
A couple who were aboard the ill-fated Queen of the North last week has launched the first lawsuit against British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. Meanwhile, the man in charge of health and safety at BC Ferries has resigned.
Darin Bowland, the director of Safety, Health and Environment at the ferry corporation left Monday for "personal reasons," according to B.C. Ferries spokeswomen Deborah Marshall.
Ms. Marshall refused to say if the resignation was linked to the sinking last week.
In Vancouver, lawyer David Varty filed a statement of claim Tuesday with the B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Maria and Alexander Kotais.
The couple were aboard the Queen of the North and in the process of moving to Nanaimo, B.C., from Kitimat, on the north coast.
The Kotais had moved their basic items already in a moving van, but were carrying their more precious valuables, like jewellery, family heirlooms, clothing and important documents, in their vehicle and the vehicle of a friend who was also on the Queen of the North, according to Mr. Varty.
The suit is a class action suit and could be expanded include all the paying passengers on the doomed ferry.
"The claim will largely deal with the post-accident, post-trauma," Mr. Varty said, adding that several ferry's passengers have been demonstrating signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Queen of the North sunk in the early hours of the morning last Wednesday. Of the 101 passengers and crew onboard, 99 were rescued. However, common-law couple Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette of 108 Mile House have been missing since the ferry went down are presumed to be dead.
The Transportation Safety Board released a series of photos and video of the Queen of the North on the ocean bottom.
Underwater images obtained from a submersible equipped with video cameras show the vessel is under 426 metres of water on the ocean floor resting upright in silt.
BC Ferries said Tuesday the one-person submersible it contracted to scan the wreck completed its assessment and has left the site.
Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon declined to comment on the lawsuit or Mr. Bowland's resignation Tuesday. Instead, he continued to praise everyone involved in the aftermath of the sinking.
Mr. Falcon said the response of the crew and other agencies, like ICBC, was exceptional.
The Kotois' suit claims negligence on behalf of B.C. Ferries and its employees, arguing the crew were inadequately trained and monitored. It also alleges the crew failed to keep a proper lookout and that B.C. Ferries continued to operate the Queen of the North when it knew or ought to have known that the design of the ship made it vulnerable to taking on water in multiple compartments, making it more likely to sink if the hull were breached.
The crew members of the Queen of the North, meanwhile, are on paid leave.
"They're home, they're with their families," said B.C. Ferries president David Hahn in Victoria. "They've got a lot to recover (from)."
"We're not going to look to penalize employees and we're not going to certainly deal with any disciplinary issues until somebody can say exactly what happened."
Mr. Hahn also said ship the 125-metre ship will likely never be pulled from its deep, muddy ocean grave because of the expense.
"I think it would probably cost $100-million to bring it up," he said. "There probably is no value to that."
"If you could, you'd really want to recover the bodies. I think that would be worth an awful lot."
SCOTT DEVEAU
March 28, 2006
Globe and Mail Update
A couple who were aboard the ill-fated Queen of the North last week has launched the first lawsuit against British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. Meanwhile, the man in charge of health and safety at BC Ferries has resigned.
Darin Bowland, the director of Safety, Health and Environment at the ferry corporation left Monday for "personal reasons," according to B.C. Ferries spokeswomen Deborah Marshall.
Ms. Marshall refused to say if the resignation was linked to the sinking last week.
In Vancouver, lawyer David Varty filed a statement of claim Tuesday with the B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Maria and Alexander Kotais.
The couple were aboard the Queen of the North and in the process of moving to Nanaimo, B.C., from Kitimat, on the north coast.
The Kotais had moved their basic items already in a moving van, but were carrying their more precious valuables, like jewellery, family heirlooms, clothing and important documents, in their vehicle and the vehicle of a friend who was also on the Queen of the North, according to Mr. Varty.
The suit is a class action suit and could be expanded include all the paying passengers on the doomed ferry.
"The claim will largely deal with the post-accident, post-trauma," Mr. Varty said, adding that several ferry's passengers have been demonstrating signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Queen of the North sunk in the early hours of the morning last Wednesday. Of the 101 passengers and crew onboard, 99 were rescued. However, common-law couple Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette of 108 Mile House have been missing since the ferry went down are presumed to be dead.
The Transportation Safety Board released a series of photos and video of the Queen of the North on the ocean bottom.
Underwater images obtained from a submersible equipped with video cameras show the vessel is under 426 metres of water on the ocean floor resting upright in silt.
BC Ferries said Tuesday the one-person submersible it contracted to scan the wreck completed its assessment and has left the site.
Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon declined to comment on the lawsuit or Mr. Bowland's resignation Tuesday. Instead, he continued to praise everyone involved in the aftermath of the sinking.
Mr. Falcon said the response of the crew and other agencies, like ICBC, was exceptional.
The Kotois' suit claims negligence on behalf of B.C. Ferries and its employees, arguing the crew were inadequately trained and monitored. It also alleges the crew failed to keep a proper lookout and that B.C. Ferries continued to operate the Queen of the North when it knew or ought to have known that the design of the ship made it vulnerable to taking on water in multiple compartments, making it more likely to sink if the hull were breached.
The crew members of the Queen of the North, meanwhile, are on paid leave.
"They're home, they're with their families," said B.C. Ferries president David Hahn in Victoria. "They've got a lot to recover (from)."
"We're not going to look to penalize employees and we're not going to certainly deal with any disciplinary issues until somebody can say exactly what happened."
Mr. Hahn also said ship the 125-metre ship will likely never be pulled from its deep, muddy ocean grave because of the expense.
"I think it would probably cost $100-million to bring it up," he said. "There probably is no value to that."
"If you could, you'd really want to recover the bodies. I think that would be worth an awful lot."