Re: 30 years ago: 77 die in worst ferry disaster in U.S. history

[teleflora]

"Louisiana Lou" <louisi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:yFsYg.64888$vX5....@bignews8.bellsouth.net...
> FERRY CRASH REVISITED
> 30 years ago, the River Parishes were stunned by the deaths of 77 people
> in the worst ferry disaster in U.S. history
> Sunday, October 15, 2006
> By Matt Scallan
> http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-17/116089251052770.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
>
> Thirty years ago this week, the ferryboat George Prince, packed with
> construction and chemical plant workers, pushed off from a Destrehan dock
> into the Mississippi River and blundered into the path of the Norwegian
> tanker ship Frosta.
>
> It was just after 6 a.m. on Oct. 20, 1976. Ferry pilot Egidio "Gene"
> Auletta, whose half-empty bottle of whiskey was later found in the pilot
> house, gunned the ferry's engines into the current. As the 120-foot ferry
> turned toward the Luling dock, Auletta seemed oblivious to frantic horn
> blasts and radio calls from the 665-foot-long tanker that towered over the
> ferry's port side.
>
> A few minutes later, when the ferry was only 800 feet from its
> destination, the Frosta ran over the George Prince like a bathtub toy,
> flipping it and spilling cars and people into the water. Of the 95 people
> who boarded the ferry on that clear, chilly morning, 77 died, including
> Auletta and the four members of his crew.
>
> Today, less than a mile from the site of the tragedy, the massive Hale
> Boggs Bridge straddles the river, enabling people to travel between the
> east and west banks of St. Charles Parish in moments. But there is nothing
> to mark the spot of the worst ferry disaster in U.S. history.
>
> "People seem to have forgotten about it," said Royd Anderson, a Hahnville
> High School teacher who wrote and produced a 22-minute documentary about
> the disaster.
>
> Anderson, 35, produced the film as the final project for his master's
> degree in communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
>
> He started teaching television production at Hahnville High this year.
>
> "When I started working on this two years ago, I had no idea I'd be
> working in St. Charles Parish," he said.
>
> Monument controversy
>
> The only monument to the victims sits 15 miles away near the St. John the
> Baptist Parish Courthouse in Edgard. It was placed there in 1979 after St.
> Charles Parish officials refused an offer to place it on the grounds of
> their courthouse in Hahnville.
>
> Anderson and some of the victims' families said a memorial in St. Charles
> Parish is long overdue.
>
> One idea is to place it at the public playground built under the bridge,
> whose foundations were rising out of the river when the accident occurred.
>
> "There should be a memorial here and it should be on the east bank," said
> Thomas Pritchett, whose brother, Kevin, died in the accident at 16. Kevin,
> who lived a few blocks away from the landing, had lied about his age to
> get a construction job at the Monsanto plant in Luling, his brother said.
>
> Pritchett said he was running late that morning and missed the deadly
> voyage by a few minutes.
>
> Tanker bearing down
>
> Charles Chatelain was early. The River Ridge man took the ferry every work
> day in his commute from River Ridge to the small Texaco refinery in
> Paradis. His 1975 Ford was the second vehicle to drive onto the ferry, a
> position that let him park just forward of the pilot house on the vessel's
> starboard side.
>
> As the ferry moved across the river, Chatelain and the other passengers
> saw the Frosta bearing down on them.
>
> As other passengers scattered, Chatelain dove into his truck, thinking it
> would be safe.
>
> When the Frosta slammed into the other side of the ferry, Chatelain's
> truck was among the first to plunge into the dark water.
>
> The collision shoved Chatelain out of his seat and into the truck's
> dashboard. As the truck sank, Chatelain said he struggled to get out, but
> could not. Suddenly, the water pressure popped out the truck's windshield,
> and the air trapped inside the cab propelled him into the water.
>
> "It shot me out of there like a cannon," he said.
>
> As he swam to the surface, he said he had to dodge cars and trucks that
> were falling on top of him. He was running out of air and began taking
> small "sips" of the river water made greasy with fuel.
>
> He came up with a bellyful of water and his throat burning with diesel
> fuel from the ferry's tanks, and too close to the stern of the Frosta,
> which he feared would suck him into its propeller.
>
> "I swam for what must have been 3 miles until I came upon what I thought
> was a barge. It turned out to be the hull of the ferry," he said.
>
> He climbed onto the overturned ferry's hull, where he was rescued by
> another boat, which took him to the hospital.
>
> "I was lying there half out of my mind, when the hospital administrator
> came in and said, 'Please, I've had to put guards around the hospital,
> because we've got 100 reporters out there who want to talk with you,' " he
> said.
>
> He agreed to an interview on the condition that only one reporter would
> ask questions.
>
> Two years of nightmares
>
> Chatelain, now 64, said he dreamed of the accident every night for two
> years and the aftermath was a contributing factor to his divorce in 1977.
>
> Chatelain said he avoided talking about the event for decades. He said he
> broke his silence to help Anderson with his project and to ensure that his
> children and grandchildren know what happened.
>
> "It's been long enough," he said. "It doesn't hurt much any more."
>
> A dozen St. John residents died in the wreck. Nineteen of the victims,
> including all of the crew, were from St. Charles Parish and 18 were from
> Jefferson. Another 17 victims were from Hammond, Tickfaw and Ponchatoula
> in Tangipahoa Parish.
>
> "When they pulled my truck out of the water it was crushed like a beer
> can," he said.
>
> As the recovery operation began, the banks of the river were lined with
> relatives awaiting the fate of their loved ones.
>
> Pritchett said he and his mother, Dolores, scuffled with a sheriff's
> deputy as they tried to get closer to the river bank. They were booked
> with public intimidation, but the charges were dropped.
>
> Too painful
>
> Bodies were stacked in the Knights of Columbus hall in Norco and
> overflowed into the community's fire station.
>
> "The whole community came out," said Clayton Faucheux, a former St.
> Charles Parish police juror. "We had as much help as we needed."
>
> While the years have dulled the memory of the disaster for some, questions
> still remain as to why parish officials didn't want the monument.
>
> News reports at the time attributed St. Charles' refusal to accept the
> monument to a variety of reasons, ranging from embarrassment by St.
> Charles officials about the disaster to politics.
>
> However, Faucheux said it was just too painful.
>
> "A lot of people died. It's just not something that we wanted to
> memorialize," he said.
>
> Anderson mentions the controversy in his documentary, and, for that
> reason, St. Charles officials said they won't show it on the government
> access channel.
>
> "We want the channel to be nonpolitical," said parish public information
> officer Steve Sirmon, who supervises its content. "The last thing we want
> is to have people say we're taking shots at somebody."
>
> A Coast Guard investigation into the accident concluded in 1977 that the
> death toll was so high because the tanker quickly flipped the ferry over.
> A glancing blow, or a collision at a slower speed, might have allowed the
> George Prince to remain upright, it said.
>
> The investigation concluded that Auletta's utter failure to take evasive
> action, or to post a lookout, was the primary cause of the disaster. An
> autopsy showed that six hours after he started work at midnight, Auletta
> had a .09 percent alcohol level in his bloodstream, just shy of what was
> then the legal limit of .10 percent.
>
> But it said the death toll might have been lower had Nicholas Colombo, the
> local river pilot who was guiding the tanker upriver, had reduced speed
> more quickly when the ferry pilot did not respond to hails.
>
> The accident did lead to regulatory reforms. Pilots are now subject to
> random drug and alcohol testing. And navigation rules, which in 1976 gave
> the right of way to ships crossing the river, now give it to vessels
> traveling upstream or downstream.
>
> . . . . . . .
>
> Royd Anderson's documentary film, "The Luling Ferry Disaster," will be
> shown Thursday at 7 p.m. at the St. Charles Parish West Bank Regional
> Library, 105 Lakewood Drive, Luling, and Friday at 10 a.m. at the East
> Bank Regional Library, 100 River Oaks Drive, Destrehan.
>
> The complete U.S. Coast Guard investigation report of the accident may be
> found at www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/moa/boards/frosta.pdf

Fascinating!

I have to admit, I am totally perplexed at the St Charles Parish officials
attitude. How, exactly, is acknowledgment of a disaster in any way
"political"? Because isn't that all a memorial is? Acknowledging that
something happened and people died?

Perhaps the Auletta or Columbo families don't want to be reminded of such
painful memories.

I just can't see why they would object to a public memorial.

Cindy