James Oberstar: “Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation conducted a hearing on the Staten Island ferry…”

“Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation conducted a hearing on the Staten Island ferry accident in which 10 passengers were killed. Even at this date, the captain and the pilot of the ferry claim to be too ill to testify before the National Transportation Safety Board. The Coast Guard can take no action against them because they are incompetent or a danger to the safety of a vessel because of their statements and because of a loophole in existing law. The bill that the committee has reported includes a provision recommended wisely and appropriately by the administration to close that loophole. It does not give the Coast Guard authority to go on fishing expeditions to look at the health records of a mariner, but it does what I have long advocated, provide the Coast Guard authority that the FAA has, to require all mariners that are on medication or have illnesses that could affect their ability to operate a vessel safely, to report those circumstances to the Coast Guard so they can determine whether the individual can operate safely.”