Originally Posted - July 20, 2006

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LAKE GEORGE---Ten months after the capsizing of the tour boat Ethan Allen on Lake George which took the lives of 20 senior citizens, the National Transportation Safety Board will meet Tuesday, July 25 at 9:30 a.m. to consider a final accident report in the case.

The meeting will be held in the NTSB board room and conference center in Washington. A live and archived webcast of the proceedings will be available on the board's website at www.ntsb.gov. Technical support details are available under "Board Meetings."

A summary of the board's final report, which will include findings, probable causes and any safety recommendations, will appear on the web site shortly after the conclusion of the meeting. The entire report will appear on the web site several weeks later.

More than 3,300 pages of testimony and evidence from the investigation of the Ethan Allan boating tragedy were released earlier this month by the NTSB but the documents made no conclusions.

The 38-foot tour boat capsized last Oct. 2 while on a fall foliage tour along the shoreline of Lake George on a sunny, clear day. Twenty of the 48 people on board died.

According to the statements and facts released, the boat was overloaded. The NTSB report showed that weights of the passengers who were senior citizens from Michigan and Ohio ranged from 110 pounds to 268 pounds. The NTSB report indicated that the total weight of the passenger load on Oct. 2 was 8,552 pounds, nearly a ton over the weight limit it was certified to carry.

The boat had been certified to carry 50 passengers but using the U.S. Coast Guard estimate of 140 pounds per person, the boat still appeared to have been nearly a ton overweight.

Shoreline Cruises Inc., boat owner, told the NTSB the Ethan Allen was unevenly loaded when it left the dock due to the layout of its wooden benches. Survivors said the boat was leaning to the left because it was making a right turn when it flipped over.

Shoreline said that they did not know that the 140 weight limit was obsolete.

NTSB had advised the Coast Guard in December 2004 to update its passenger weight standard to consider the increased weight limit of the average person. After the Ethan Allen tragedy. Gov. George Pataki changed the state regulations, raising the average passenger weight to 174 pounds and this spring, the Coast Guard said it would revise its regulations.

The previously released NTSB reports also indicated that the boat's coolant pump, designed to maintain proper engine temperature with the lake's water, did not appear to be tightly attached and under the safety board's testing conditions, leaked as much as a gallon of water every five minutes, the documents showed.

Statements released taken from the Captain Richard Paris, then 74, indicated that Paris continues to maintain that he was turning the boat when it capsized and that he was trying to avoid rolling waves from another boat.

The Quirk family, owners of Shoreline, are more definitive though, saying that part of the blame rests with the Mohican which was traveling faster and passed by the Ethan Allen but they say the Mohican "failed to provide any signal or warning to the Ethan Allen that it was about to be passed".

Survivors interviewed dispute Paris' claim that a large wave was to blame. They say the boat was carrying too many people and too much water.

Bill Dow, owner of the Steamboat Company, also disputes Paris' claim. He said his company can prove the Mohican was a mile away at the time of the accident.

The accident was investigated locally by the Warren County Sheriff's Department. The lack of testing of the boat's captain for drugs and alcohol immediately after the accident, a decision made by Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland, has come under fire and a prominent Warren County attorney has called for Cleveland's resignation.

The captain, retired state trooper Richard Paris, 74, is a 20-year friend of Cleveland's. Cleveland said that he didn't believe Paris was under the influence because he had him "blow" in his face and Cleveland didn't detect any odor of alcohol. He said no favoritism was shown in his decision not to test Paris. At a later televised news conference Cleveland had allegedly stated that Paris is an alcoholic.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/040106ByeByeLarry.html
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/123105EthanAllenDWI.html

Cleveland had issued a three volume, 530-page report in early February, determining that no criminal charges would be brought by his department in the accident. The report contained statements from victims and witnesses, including Paris. The report can be found at www.traverselegal.com.

The demand for Cleveland's resignation by attorney Wayne Judge came in April, days after Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan was forced to subpoena documents from Cleveland and the sheriff's department in order to continue her office's investigation into the boating accident.

She has said that she will wait until the NTSB issues its final report before she determines if a grand jury should be impaneled to investigate the accident for criminal conduct.

The average age of the 20 persons killed, some infirm, was 76.

State officials suspended the operating license of the boat's captain and sole crew member, Paris, 74. The licenses of all boats owned and operated by Shoreline were been suspended after it was determined that the Ethan Allen was in violation of state law because it lacked the second crew member as required on boats with 21 to 48 passengers.

At least nine wrongful death suits have been filed by families of the victims and survivors.

For a review of The North Country Gazette's extensive continuing coverage of the Ethan Allen boating tragedy and Cleveland's precarious political and professional future, visit the sitemap at www.northcountrygazette.org and enter a search for Ethan Allen, Lake George boating accident and/or Larry Cleveland. 7-20-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette