Page 23: of Marine News Magazine (February 2024)

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Passenger Vessel Safety occur on a sightseeing vessel or an Ohio River dinner cruise?

This contrast between speci? c – sometimes very speci? c – and general comes to mind when considering the numerous safety advisories pertaining to recent amphibious DUKW boat tragedies or the 2019 Conception dive boat disaster off of Santa Cruz Island, Calif. It’s hard to imagine any captain or maritime operator not paying close attention to all of the is- sues raised by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) or the National

Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), even though most ves- sels may have little in common with a DUKW or dive boat.

This broader focus yields other information, beyond hardware and equipment: are regulatory agencies working together, particularly the USCG and the NTSB? Calls for heightened safety concerns in one vessel sector, can signal changes elsewhere, again, not necessarily with equipment but with new or revised industry-wide policies, e.g., inspections, permits, deadlines, safety reviews or new monitoring and re- porting requirements (the NTSB is not a regulatory agency).

With passenger safety, the USCG-NTSB working part- nership sometimes raises concerns. On August 31, 2023, for example, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, sent a letter to USCG Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan, noting the fourth anniversary of the Conception tragedy. Homendy ? rst cites numerous examples of the USCG and NTSB working cooperatively on critical issues. But her focus shifts to one out- standing issue: the NTSB recommended, after its Conception investigation, that the USCG require safety management sys- tems (SMS) on all passenger vessels. Four years later, she notes with concern that the SMS proposal is in limbo.

“The time for action is now,” Homendy wrote to Fagan in August, “In honor of the 34 Conception victims and ecause there are so many different kinds of pas- senger vessels, the critical topic of passenger every other person who has lost their life on our nation’s waterways, I strongly encourage you to issue SMS regula- safety can sometimes appear as a set of niche top-

B ics, each one just distantly connected to another. tions within the next 30 days.” A copy of the letter was

After all, passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean sent to 10 members of Congress.

Homendy notes that, in fact, the USCG did issue an face safety issues that are much different than a commuter going from Jersey City to Manhattan or a tourist crossing SMS Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for passen- ger vessels in January 2021. But “progress has been stalled,” from the Mukilteo, Wash. ferry terminal to Whidbey Is- she wrote, and that Advance Notice hasn’t advanced. land or a family on a ? shing vessel in Miami.

Importantly, though, for passenger vessel operators, a

Regulatory impacts vary commitment to safety is not siloed. Risks may vary but be-

In its 2021 notice the USCG includes some important, cause even the slightest error or misjudgment can have tragic related statistics: consequences, safety issues draw broad review: if new dan- • There are approximately 6,500 active and gers arise for a ferry, is there even the slightest chance it could www.marinelink.com MN 23|