Changes coming to make ferries more difficult to accidentally drive off

Adjustments will be made to riverferries over the coming months to make it more difficult for people to drive offthem when the ramps are up.

Those changes were already planned when a 40-year-old Nauwigewauk man drove his vehicle off an out-of-service ferry on the Kingston Peninsula side of the Gondola Point ferry.

Mark Taylor, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, said those changes will be made over the coming months and include making ramps steeper.

"It's not as simple as adjusting your side mirrors," explained Taylor. "It takes some mechanical work."

Those changes will be made as individual ferries are taken off their runs for regular maintenance in the next few months.

The driver and lone occupant of a vehicle that went off the Gondola Point ferry and into the Kennebecasis River on Saturday night was identified Monday as a 40-year-old man from Nauwigewauk, northeast of Saint John. His name was not released.

In a news release, the RCMP said a vehicle was seen going "through a barricade and onto a non-operational ferry docked at the Gondola Point ferry terminal" in Clifton Royal.

Shortly after, the vehicle went off the ferry ramp and into the river, said the release, which did not get into detail about the "barricade."

On Sunday, the RCMP's underwater recovery team located and recovered the vehicle, and the body of a man inside.

An autopsy is being conducted to determine the exact cause of death, the RCMP release stated.

• Driver of car that drove off Gondola Point ferry identified as Nauwigewauk man

Taylor said the ferry involved had been operational the day before but was taken out of service because of the strike by some government workers, including ferry workers who belong to a CUPE local.

When a ferry is off its run, signs are erected on the landing, and the ramp on the water side of the ferry is left up, explained Taylor.

"It's extremely difficult to manoeuvre around those safety measures," he said.

On Tuesday, the RCMP referred all calls to an officer in Sussex, who did not respond by publication time.

No one with the Transportation Safety Board responded by publication time.

Incidents not uncommon

In September 2020, two men from the Sussex area drowned after their vehicle went off the Belleisle ferry.

At the time, the RCMP said it was believed that the driver of the truck accelerated midway through the crossing, sending the vehicle forward up the ferry rampand into the bay just before 1:50 a.m. on Sept. 13.

The bodies were found in about 24 metres of water that night, and divers brought them to the surface the next day.

Six months before that, a Kingston Peninsula woman had to be rescued after she backed her vehicle off a ferry midway across the Kennebecasis River.

Angela Marie Rayneswas returning home after an exhausting shift at Costco. There was no crew on the deck of the ferry as she approached from the Gondola Point side around 9:30 p.m. on March 24, 2020. She drove onto the boat and waited.

When a second car stopped behind her without driving on, Raynes began to fear her boat was out of commission. That's when she decided toback off the ferry and move over to the other lane for the second boat.

She initially landed upside down, but her vehicle soon righted itself before starting to sink

She was on the phone with 911 when the second ferry pulled alongside and directed a spotlight onto the car, as the ferry she had driven off backed up towardher.

Theferry operator threw her a life preserver and encouraged her to pull herself along the cable back to the ferry.

Strike operations

Taylor said the intention is to keep at least one ferry operating at Gondola Point and Westfield during the strike. The Belleisle ferry, however, is down for the foreseeable future.

"Evandale is currently down but we are working hard to get it operating again as soon as possible," he said.

Users can keep track of operations on the Department of Transportation's 511 link for ferries.