Emergency preparedness on large passenger ferries operating in Canada needs improvement according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
The TSB launched its safety issues watchlist on March 15 - a list that identified the safety issues in the air, marine and rail modes of transportation that, according to the TSB, pose the greatest risk to Canadians.
"During an emergency, it is essential that all passengers be accounted for, and, in the case of an abandonment, for example, that they board survival craft in an organized, efficient manner," states the TSB report with regards to ferry travel.
The TSB recommended that large ferry operators adopt and practise effective emergency preparedness procedures. This includes maintaining detailed passenger lists and practising evacuations.
"When people are faced with an emergency, the response of those who have received training and practice is more automatic and requires less interpretation and decision making," said the TSB. "This amounts to precious time saved - time that is even more vital when lives are at stake. It is therefore critical that crew members have access to detailed, accurate passenger lists, and that crews be practised at mustering and crowd control."
Deborah Marshall, media relations officer with B.C. Ferries, said although they appreciate what the TSB has said in their report, some of what the TSB has asked is not practical.
"We certainly have training with all our onboard crews once a week with drills, such as man overboard, fire drills, etc., so we feel we are practising effective emergency procedures, but suggesting that those drills involve passengers is not practical," said Marshall. "The systems for our shoots and slides, for example, are expensive and time consuming to re-pack the equipment. If we were to have an on-board drill with the passengers aboard the Queen of Surrey, for example, it would take considerable time to re-pack and get the ship ready to sail again, which would be a major time loss for our passengers."
As for the detailed passenger manifests, Marshall said those are in place up north on any routes over five hours, but to do that on the southern routes would be a very time consuming procedure.
"With the volumes and frequency of sailings on our southern routes, it does not allow for that," she said. "We do have passenger counts for the purpose of an evacuation should that occur, but to ask customers to arrive hours before a sailing on these routes is simply not practical."
