Ferry Crew Passes Alcohol Test

It's still not clear what caused a high-speed ferry loaded with hundreds of commuters from New Jersey to crash into a dock in lower Manhattan today. Police said the crew of the Seastreak Wall Street passed alcohol breath tests given after the crash. Scores of people who had been standing, waiting to disembark, were hurled to the deck or launched into walls by the impact, which came after the catamaran slowed following a routine trip across New York Bay and past the Statue of Liberty, passengers said.

"We were pulling into the dock. The boat hit the dock. We just tumbled on top of each other. I got thrown into everybody else," says one passenger. "People were hysterical, crying." Around 70 people suffered minor injuries, and for nearly two hours paramedics treated bruised and dazed passengers on the pier. The ferry, built in 2003, had recently undergone a major overhaul that gave it new engines and a new propulsion system, but officials said it was too soon to tell whether they played any role in the crash. (More ferry crash stories.)