How does a car fall off a ferry?

[malaise]

Watching a rescue effort at Government Cut in Florida

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/02/18/car-reportedly-falls-off-fisher-island-ferry-into-water/

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews and the U.S. Coast Guard responded Tuesday afternoon to reports of a car that fell off the Fisher Island Ferry into the water.

Sky 10 was above the scene at 5:30 p.m. as the Fisher Island Ferry was near the rescue boats.

It’s unclear how many people were inside the vehicle.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Standard shift & broken parking brake?

[malaise]

4. I doubt that

I suspect that the vehicle was not turned off despite regulations

[dewsgirl]

16. Perhaps that's one of the regulations, Trump doesn't think we

need any longer.
Seriously though my husband is a tow truck owner/operator, this is scary.

[malaise]

17. Scary is right

[dewsgirl]

18. ....

[NutmegYankee]

24. Standards are usually more stable.

Normal practice is leave in gear and parking brake. The leaving in gear (engine off) will normally hold the car on level ground without parking brake. By comparison, automatics rely on a little piece of metal (parking pawl) to lock the transmission and practically nobody engages the parking brake. I’ve seen the pawl fail and allow an automatic to roll as if in neutral.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

34. How do you take the key out if the transmission's

not in “park”? NT

[NutmegYankee]

36. There is no "park" in a standard. You just turn the car off and leave the shifter in 1st or reverse

That's not the problem though. The "Park" on an automatic is just a thin piece of metal. The "Parking Pawl" can suffer metal fatigue and break allowing the automatic transmission to free spin as if in neutral. Automatics left in Park on a hill are always in danger of breaking free since practically no automatic driver applies their parking brake.

On the other hand a standard with gear engaged while engine is off is very resistant to moving. Combined with the parking brake they won't move even on a hill.

[CentralMass]

28. This. I have a manual shift and my parking brake is a bit iffy. Time for a brake job

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

40. They've always used wheel chocks for the furthest forward and rear cars on any ferry I've ridden.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Maybe butt-dialed the Smaht Pahk on his Hyundai key fob?

And it wasn't quite smart enough lol ...

[onethatcares]

6. what model is that on?

asking for a friend.

[mr_lebowski]

33. At minimum the Sonata ...

[SammyWinstonJack]

55. I love that commercial.

[malaise]

8. Possible

Reports say two people are in the car - no sign of it all now.
Meanwhile another man in Florida died as he tried to beat a train with his car this morning.

[HipChick]

11. Was those mins worth his life?

I barely even read the news anymore Malaise...some if these stories..just leave me shaking my head..

[malaise]

15. True but when we see how folks beat traffic lights these days

we should ask the same question.

I actually have a sticker on my car which says
This car slows down on orange and stops on red.
In Jamaica these days orange means step on the gas. Lots of morons don't give a shit about the road code.

[gratuitous]

20. Beating a train to the crossing

It's hard to imagine a dumber risk/reward challenge, but motorists take it every day. I'd liken it to treating a firearm as if it's unloaded.

[IggleDuer]

5. This ferry transports the well-heeled

VIP cars go to the front of the boat and could be the one that fell.

[malaise]

9. Well this one was in the front for sure

Awful way to die

[NutmegYankee]

37. The fact that people were inside is probably evidence of operator error.

Either the engine was on, or the car wasn't in park but off, or the driver failed to deploy the parking brake or didn't hit the actual brakes once rolling.

[malaise]

41. I will never understand why people park and don't use their handbrake

I had a friend lose his youngest child -he, his wife and their eight year old daughter went to a party. and parked on a flipping hill. During the afternoon the kid wanted something from the car and they let her go for it - the car started rolling and killed her. We regularly forget that cars can be weapons.

This situation is different because they were in the car and you'r right

[Blue_true]

45. I had a knee problem with the leg that I control the brakes and gas with.

To make a long story short, the movement between the two pedals was limited. I was stopping the car and pressed part of the gas pedal. The car instantly lurched forward about four feet, luckily nothing was in front of me, because if there was, the crash would have been violent.

[NutmegYankee]

46. I rarely see people with automatic transmissions use them.

They just rely on the parking pawl in the Park position. I use the parking brake because I've driven only stick shift for 24 years and it's habit. I have a brand new shift car and a 15 year old one.

[alphafemale]

50. I was playing in front of a car on an incline.

My dog grabbed me and dragged me.

It was a few seconds before the car rolled down where I had been.

Animals sense things.

[Blue_true]

42. I took a ferry once. The ferry operator required that we turn our cars over to

a ferry hand who gave us a ticket and stored the vehicle. We could not stay with or in the vehicles.

[NutmegYankee]

44. Most I've ridden have allowed us to stay in the vehicle.

Especially the shorter open deck roll on roll off ferries. The only rules were engine off & parking brake engaged.

[Blue_true]

51. The one and only one I took required that people exit the cars and let an attendant park them. nt

[customerserviceguy]

7. Good question

When I took the Washington State Ferries years ago when I lived on the Olympic Peninsula, and they always put wheel chocks under the tires of the cars at the front and back of the vessel.

[2naSalit]

10. A friend of mine takes that ferry every day!

I'll have to check in on them this evening to see if they were on that one or if they know anything more.

[malaise]

13. Please give us an update

It's not looking good and here comes the night

[2naSalit]

21. I sent email and text...

I'll let you know if.when I hear anything. In the drone footage of the ferry and the empty space on it. The car that was in the middle of that row looks a lot like my friend's car.

[malaise]

23. Then the good news is that it wasn't your friend

[2naSalit]

25. Indeed. But if they were in the car next to the one

that fell off, I want to hear about that!

Have to wait for a response. It sounds like there were two women in the vehicle of fate so that would also rule out my friend.

[malaise]

26. That would have been horrifying to see

[2naSalit]

29. It sure would!

I hope the people in the car got out. Any word on that?

[samnsara]

12. OMG!! I eventually quit going on them because i was always the car at the end...

...with a rope and block behind my tire to keep from rolling into the water. For someone who doesnt swim thats pretty scary.

[malaise]

14. The last ferry I took was in Denmark

but we weren't in front

[CTyankee]

53. Google "Chappy ferry." I take this illuminating ride every summer getting from Edgartown to

Chappaquiddick Island, several times a week actually. It takes only a few minutes but runs constantly during the high season. One going over as one comes back. It's great: shop and eat in Edgartown and get back to Chappy on a nice ferry.

[yewberry]

19. What? That doesn't make sense.

The story is that a car rolled off a ferry and it was at the front of the vessel? You'd have to drive off the front of a vessel. Think about it. This is a roll-on roll-off vessel-- if you drive onto a vessel like this and are at the "front" the force pushes your car toward the aft of the vessel. And why wouldn't there be chocks?

[2naSalit]

22. Right?

And it doesn't appear to be choppy water either.

[NutmegYankee]

38. I find chocks to be a rarity.

I use river ferries here and they never use them, even when I'm the only car onboard.

[yewberry]

39. They're the standard here.

But it's a state-run system here, so there are lots of regulations.

[NutmegYankee]

43. That's funny. I'm using a Connecticut state ferry.

Not a state known for lax regulations.

[yewberry]

47. Might be a different kind of scenario.

These are pretty large boats sailing in all weather.

[NutmegYankee]

48. True. These are puny ferries crossing a river. nt

[Arazi]

27. Deliberate? Murder/suicide?

[TheBlackAdder]

30. It ran out of ferry dust?

[benld74]

31. Best me to that one Badder

[malaise]

32. Hehehehe

You're too bad

[MissB]

49. .

Of course I hope no one died

[unblock]

35. first it falls off the wagon. after that, falling off a ferry is easy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. Amazingly, the ferry doesn't have a solid gate at the end - just a piece of fabric

tied on at the side. It would take hardly any momentum for a car to push through that. 40 seconds into the film at your link.

[csziggy]

54. Bodies Recovered From Car That Fell Off Fisher Island Ferry

[malaise]

56. Too sad

Two good friends died in this awful tragedy