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93 hurt when Japanese ferry hits suspected whale(Yomiuri Shimbun, The (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) KAGOSHIMA, Japan _ More than 90 people were injured when a hydrofoil hit an unidentified marine object off Cape Sata on Sunday, a Japan Coast Guard spokesman said. According to the 10th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Kagoshima, 88 of the 109 passengers and five of the six crew members on the high-speed ferry Toppy 4 were hurt. Of those, 12 were seriously injured. Thirty-six, including some crew members, were hospitalized. Coast Guard officials started Monday morning inspecting the water around the accident site and are expected to question Koichi Akase, the ferry's captain, who was hospitalized. According to a spokesman at Kagoshima Shosen, which operates the ferry, Toppy was cruising near its maximum speed of 50 mph at the time of the accident. "Something hit the hydrofoil's port stern quarter, and the boat plunged forward," Akase was quoted by the spokesman as saying. "There was no driftwood in sight, so I think it's highly likely that Toppy hit some kind of marine creature like a whale." The JCG dispatched six patrol vessels and two helicopters after it received an emergency call from a passenger on board Toppy at about 6 p.m. Sunday. The 12 seriously injured people and infants were transferred from the ferry to two patrol boats. The two boats arrived in Ibusuki by 9:50 p.m. that evening. The patrol ship Sendai towed Toppy, which was unable to continue under its own power, and the remaining 85 passengers on board reached Yamagawa Port in Ibusuki at 11:30 p.m. the same day. Four Toppy ferries ply the route that connects Kagoshima, Tanegashima island and Yakushima island 13 times daily. Kagoshima Shosen began operating the service in 1989. The ferry has a hydrofoil at its bow and stern that lift the boat's hull above the surface of the water. Though the boat is equipped with an underwater speaker that emits a sound whales are supposed to dislike, it is not effective against all kinds of whale. The Construction and Transport Ministry's Kyushu District Transport Bureau decided Monday to inspect Kagoshima Shosen this month, under the Maritime Transport Law. The district transport bureau believes it highly likely that many of the ferry's passengers who were injured had not fastened their seat belts. The bureau is expected to question company employees whether the firm had taken appropriate measures to ensure passengers had fastened their seat belts. Though there is no legal obligation for passengers to fasten their seat belts on ferries, operators have their own regulations. There was no word on the status of the unidentified marine object. ___ (c) 2006, The Yomiuri Shimbun. Visit the Daily Yomiuri Online at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm/ Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. |