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NTSB: Captain’s error led to 2013 ferry crash

NEW YORK — A captain’s error, compounded by confusing controls and lax safety regulations, led to the January 2013 ferry crash that injured 80 people in Lower Manhattan, federal investigators said Tuesday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the ferry’s captain, Jason
Reimer, lost control of the
Seastreak Wall Street after ‘‘inadvertently’’ leaving the vessel running on a rarely used backup system.

The veteran mariner scrambled to regain control of the 131-foot vessel, but had little time and no visual or audio cues to quickly alert him to his error, investigators said.

Investigators, discussing the findings at a safety board hearing in Washington, D.C., blamed ferry operator Sea-streak LLC, for ‘‘ineffective oversight’’ and said Reimer was hampered by a lack of training and a lack of familiarity with the backup system.

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A message left at a number listed under Reimer’s name was not immediately returned.

Reimer switched to the system after sensing a vibration in a propeller just north of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, about halfway in the commuter ferry’s midmorning run from Atlantic Highlands, N.J. to Lower Manhattan.

The switch should have been temporary, but Reimer left the ferry on the backup system for the rest of the voyage and it slammed into a dock near the South Street Seaport, sending passengers into walls and knocking them to the floor.

Associated Press