THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The National Transportation Safety Board faults the Coast Guard for the fatal sinking last winter of a Maryland fishing boat, reasoning that inspectors should have detected corroded nails and rotted fasteners on boards that later came off in a storm.
Maybe, but shouldn't passengers be able to rely on boat operators to maintain safety - whether they're boarding a charter fishing boat or a huge ferry like the Estonia, whose sinking last week in the Baltic Sea claimed the lives of more than 900 people?
The rickety condition of some vessels and their ``safety'' gear indicate that passengers' trust may be sadly misplaced. Inspectors had found problems with the Estonia the day it sank, and previous incidents have come to light.
It can be very difficult to detect the kinds of problems that caused the 58-foot El Toro II to go down in the Chesapeake Bay last Dec. 5. That does not fully explain why the Coast Guard had certified the boat's safety seven months earlier, but it raises questions about maintenance of passengers boats.
The NTSB also cited life vests so old that cloth straps ripped off some of them when passengers were lifted from the water and the absence of a flooding alarm. Coast Guard inspectors should have detected those conditions.
The NTSB wants the Coast Guard to require that all nail fasteners be replaced on wooden passenger vessels more than 15 years old; to require small passenger boats to carry inflatable rafts to reduce deaths from hypothermia, which claimed two passengers and a crewman of El Toro; and to create a database of structural problems uncovered in inspections so examiners could focus on vulnerable areas.
The safety board says the captain made a reasonable decision to embark on the fishing expedition despite weather reports calling for high winds and rough seas. The Coast Guard said earlier, however, that the boat's weather radio had been turned off. That is not reasonable.
After the El Toro sinking, the Coast Guard announced annual, under-way inspections of wooden passenger boats. They should continue.
Even with changes urged by the National Transportation Safety Board and with changes certain to follow the ferry sinking, commitment to safety is one of the best guarantees of safe passage. by CNB