NEW YORK — A Staten Island ferry pilot pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges Wednesday in a crash that killed 11 commuters last October, acknowledging that he passed out at the helm after arriving at work with medication in his system.
Richard Smith made his plea hours before authorities released an indictment charging New York's director of ferries with manslaughter for allegedly running a system so slipshod that it was "a tragedy waiting to happen," prosecutors said.
The plea and indictments followed a 10-month investigation in the case. The Oct. 15 crash occurred when the Andrew J. Barberi ferry drifted off course and slammed into a concrete maintenance pier, turning a routine trip across New York Harbor into a nightmare of shattered glass and twisted metal. Dozens were injured in what was one of the worst mass-transit disasters in New York history.
Prosecutors said ferry director Patrick Ryan neglected long-established safety practices, including the requirement that a ship's captain and assistant captain share the wheelhouse during docking. The two-pilot requirement was put in place in 1958 to prevent an accident if one person was incapacitated, prosecutors said.
But Ryan never told new pilots about the rule or enforced it, prosecutors said. They said his mismanagement was so bad that the ferry system, which shuttles about 70,000 people daily between Staten Island and Manhattan, had no set of written standard operating procedures at the time of the crash.
"The Barberi crashed as a result of the criminal negligence of two individuals, Assistant Captain Richard Smith and ferry director Patrick Ryan," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said. "This was a tragedy waiting to happen."
Ryan's attorney said he had no immediate comment. At his federal court hearing, Smith said: "I was not in proper physical condition to safely operate the Staten Island ferry. I lost consciousness and was not in control of the ferry when it crashed."
The city's corporation counsel, Michael Cardozo, quickly issued a statement defending Ryan.
"We do not believe that Captain Patrick Ryan was guilty of manslaughter in the performance of his duties," Cardozo said. "Patrick Ryan has been a respected and loyal employee who brought about many improvements to the ferry over his long history of service."
Smith, 55, could be sentenced to more than three years in prison under federal guidelines.
Smith also pleaded guilty to concealing his drug-taking and high blood pressure on a Coast Guard pilot's license renewal form. His doctor was charged with helping falsify the Coast Guard document.
Smith's blood pressure condition and prescription for a powerful medication he was taking for back pain could have disqualified him from service, prosecutors said.
Smith fled after the wreck and tried to commit suicide, slashing his wrists and shooting himself with a pellet gun. Appearing haggard and drawn, Smith said Wednesday he didn't acknowledge his health problems on the license renewal form because he was afraid of losing his job.
The ship's captain and the ferry's port captain also were charged with lying to federal investigators about the crash.