Ferry terminal will be down for months

The Duke Point ferry terminal near Nanaimo will be shut down for months after a ferry crashed into the dock, BC Ferries said Wednesday.

The BC Ferries vessel Coastal Inspiration — capable of carrying more than 1,600 passengers and crew and 370 vehicles, including 32 semi-tractor-trailer units — slammed into a loading ramp Tuesday, injuring two people and heavily damaging the only ramp.

"It's going to be months before that berth is repaired," said BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall.

The 160-metre Coastal Inspiration is expected to be out of service for at least a month, she said. A new part has to be made in Germany, where the ship was built.

Marshall said there was a warning to passengers to brace just before the impact.

"There were two injuries reported, two soft tissue injuries, one to a crew member and one to a passenger," she said. "There has been significant damage."

Many people were already in their vehicles or were waiting mid-deck to exit the ferry on foot when the crash occurred at the terminal near Nanaimo, B.C.

While foot passengers were able to get off the ferry at Duke Point, the damage to the loading ramp forced the boat to travel to the nearby Departure Bay terminal near downtown Nanaimo so the vehicles could unload.

She says a preliminary investigation shows an electronic failure in a control system may have caused the crash, but that hasn't been verified.

Duke Point is located just south of Nanaimo and usually handles much of the area's truck traffic.

There were four daily round-trip runs between Duke Point and Tsawwassen near Vancouver, but those trips will now sail out of Departure Bay.

Departure Bay ferries usually sail from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay , just west of Vancouver.

The crash comes at the busiest time of the year with people travelling to and from Vancouver Island for the Christmas holidays.

This is the second hard landing in just over a month at BC Ferries.

On Nov. 18, the Queen of Coquitlam was slightly damaged when the ship hit a wing wall at the Departure Bay terminal.

"I know it is unfortunate we've had the two incidents, but we do over 500 sailings a day," Marshall said.

Marshall said BC Ferries had made 15,000 sailings in the days between those two incidents.