Darius Marshall had just finished a shift as a security guard at the United Nations when he called his banker brother, Eros, into his Tribeca office. But Eros was busy.
Darío “left early and passed by here; He was on a project and couldn’t escape. I told him I would have to catch him next time,” he told The Post.
So Darius boarded the Andrew J. Barberi ferry at the Whitehall terminal in Lower Manhattan and left for his new home on Staten Island, where he had just moved with his wife of four months, Cindy.
Just two years earlier, Darius had barely survived the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was knocked unconscious by falling debris and was eventually found by his family on a hospital ferry in New Jersey 13 hours after the attacks.
This time, Darius wouldn’t make it.
Twenty minutes after leaving the tip of Manhattan, as the 3,335-ton, 310-foot-long Barberi approached the St. George Terminal, the off-course ship slammed into a maintenance dock at full speed, punching a hole in 250 feet wide on its starboard side and spanning the main deck where many of the 1,500 passengers, including Darius, were queuing to disembark.
At 25 years old, Darius Marshall was the youngest of 11 people who lost their lives that day. “He was my little brother and my best friend,” Eros Marshall said of the Wagner College graduate.
Darius Marshall, a United Nations security guard, was the youngest victim. Courtesy of Eros Marshall The 3,335-ton, 310-foot-long Barberi crashed into a maintenance dock. AP shoes are seen among the wreckage and damage to a Staten Island ferry in New York.REUTERS
October 15 will mark the 20th anniversary of the ferry tragedy, caused when the man at the ship’s helm, Assistant Captain Richard Smith, 55, fainted while at the helm after taking strong prescription medication for an eye problem. back.
Seventy people were injured, some of them terribly mutilated.
Doctors at Staten Island hospitals amputated four people and treated countless broken bones, crushed pelvises and life-changing trauma.
James McMillan Jr., 44, of the Bronx, lost the use of his arms and legs. Paul Esposito, 24, lost both legs above the knee.
Victims of the Staten Island ferry accident wait to be transferred to ambulances. Staten Island Advance
In 2004, Esposito told The Post that he still had nightmares but wanted to live a full life: “I want to have a positive attitude. “I want to make something good out of a bad situation.”
Barbara A. Butcher, an investigator with the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, was assigned to the case.
“My first sight of the destruction of the ferry was heartbreaking,” he recalls. “So many personal belongings scattered among the rubble inside, and then the sight of human remains crushed under the seats and windows.”
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board exposed systemic problems with ferry safety.REUTERS
The worst would follow. “I remember telling a young wife that her husband was identified among the victims,” she recalls. “His cries for her still echo in my mind.”
Eros Marshall returned home that night to Sparta, New Jersey, and turned on his television: it was the first glimpse of what had happened.
She called Darius, but only received his voicemail.
Paul Esposito, 24, lost both legs above the knee.AP
“I knew something was wrong,” he said. “My wife and I drove to a center the Red Cross set up on Staten Island. It was about an hour before we were told she had died in the accident.
“I wasn’t angry, I was devastated. I remember thinking: how am I going to tell my mother?
Immediately after the accident, Captain Smith fled the scene to his home on Staten Island.
After locking himself in his bathroom, he attempted to cut his wrists and attempted to shoot himself twice in the chest with a pellet gun.
His suicide attempt failed when his family and some of his co-workers kicked down the door to save him. Smith, who still lives on Staten Island, did not return messages seeking comment.
In August 2004, Smith pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sailor manslaughter and, 17 months later, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Barbara A. Butcher, an investigator with the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, was assigned to the case. Helayne Seidman Assistant Captain Richard Smith fainted at the helm of the ferry after taking prescription medication for a back problem. REUTERS Michael Gansas, who was supposed to be in the cockpit next to Smith, avoided prosecution but was fired by the city’s Department of Transportation.REUTERS
In federal court in Brooklyn, he said he would “regret for the rest of my life not calling in sick.”
Patrick Ryan, the ferry’s director of operations, also pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter of a seaman and making a false statement to investigators.
He admitted that he had not complied with the rule requiring two qualified pilots to be in the wheelhouse at all times. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. He could not be reached for comment.
The boat’s captain, Michael Gansas, who was supposed to be in the cockpit next to Smith, avoided prosecution but was fired by the city Department of Transportation for refusing to cooperate with investigators.
Gansas, now 58, lives in Hazlet, New Jersey. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A scathing report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) exposed systemic problems with ferry safety and criticized the DOT for failing to “implement and monitor safe and effective operating procedures.”
He also cited “the captain’s failure to exercise his command responsibility over the ship ensuring the safety of its operations.”
The NTSB report recommended a litany of reforms for the DOT, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Passenger Craft Association. ASSOCIATED PRESS One of the injured is transferred to an FDNY ambulance at the terminal. Staten Island Preview A victim is transported from the ferry scene. Staten Island Preview
Investigators found that Coast Guard safety recommendations dating back to 1998 had also been ignored.
A series of civil lawsuits were filed against the city, which paid more than $90 million in settlements to victims and their families. McMillan received $18.3 million and Esposito received $8.9 million.
The NTSB report recommended a litany of reforms for the DOT, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Passenger Vessel Association and those states that operate public ferries, primarily related to stricter oversight of medical certification of licensed pilots and the implementation of safety management programs.
The damaged pier would require $1.4 million in repairs, and Barberi himself needed a $7 million repair.
Ángela Paguay, left, helped by her son Ángel as they pass the bronze sign in honor of those who died, like her son, Guillermo Paguay.AP
When it was relaunched in June 2004, a commemorative plaque honoring the victims was installed on its cover. But it wouldn’t be the last time the unfortunate ship was involved in a major accident.
On May 8, 2010, a faulty valve that prevented the propellers from stopping caused the ship to crash into a dock at the St. George terminal once again, resulting in 40 passengers being hospitalized for minor injuries.
For Butcher, who chronicled his investigations in “What The Dead Know: Learning About Life As A New York City Death Investigator,” the scale of the Staten Island ferry disaster may not have been the same as others he worked on, like 9/11. and the 2004 tsunami in East Asia, but it was no less important.
The Andrew J. Barberi ferry crossing New York Harbor on June 3, 2015. Chad Rachman/New York Post Just two years earlier, Marshall had barely survived the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11. Courtesy of Eros Marshall
“Although the Staten Island Ferry accident was a minor incident, it was important to each and every family that their loved one be found and identified,” he said. “The pain is the same for each of us who loses a loved one in a tragedy.”
For Eros Marshall, 47, and his family, there is no bitterness, although the pain remains.
“We are not an angry family and it is good to know that New York City has made changes to ferry operations to minimize the chances of a similar accident in the future,” he said. But “my family is still struggling with the loss all these years later and I don’t think we will ever get over it. “We miss Darius every day.”
The Andrew J. Barberi, in operation for 42 years, was retired on September 28, just three weeks before the 20th anniversary of its worst tragedy. Like all retired ferries, it will be sold at auction, the city said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn