Tour boat in deadly capsize was unregulated and had previously tipped

After a tour boat capsized this week in a tunnel-like cavern in western New York, killing a man and injuring nearly a dozen others, officials said they were investigating when the boat was last inspected.

The answer, it turns out, is most likely never.

The 300-foot channel in the dimly lit cave, the Lockport Cave in Lockport, NY, is privately owned and is not navigable water. As such, the narrow flat-bottomed boat, which carried 28 people on Monday, was operating in a regulatory limbo, officials said.

As a result of the episode, Governor Kathy Hochul directed her administration to “examine all possible ways to prevent future tragedies,” a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The U.S. Coast Guard oversees federally navigable waterways. But the governor’s spokesman, Matt Janiszewski, said no government agency has jurisdiction over vessels in non-public, non-navigable waterways.

The revelation that no official agency was overseeing the safety of the attraction, which is about half an hour east of Niagara Falls, emerged as That reports Buffalo News that Monday’s episode was not the first of its kind, despite what Lockport officials have said.

In September 2015, The News reported, about 30 people from a social services charity — at least half of them teenage clients — were similarly jettisoned. All those dumped in the canal subsequently escaped without serious injury, according to a woman whose son was there.

The woman, Sheri Scavone, said in an interview that the capsizing had traumatized her son, who was 15 at the time and a good swimmer. He helped pull another teen to safety.

“It was dark, the water was icy, there was nothing to grab onto,” said Ms Scavone, adding that, as was the case this week, no one was wearing life jackets. “Twenty children could have died that day.”

She said she decided to call attention to the earlier episode after Lockport officials said Monday that the cave attraction, a man-made remnant of New York’s industrial past that sits next to the Erie Canal, had run without incident since opening to New York City. tourists in the 1970s.

“I couldn’t let that pass,” Mrs. Scavone said.

Daniel and Elizabeth Morrisette, who were among the boat’s passengers on Monday, described a similarly terrifying scene in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​when 16 people were rescued from 60-degree water as deep as six feet. .

“The boat was on top of me and I couldn’t find any air pockets or anything like that,” said Mr. Morrisette. “And I’m just trying to breathe because I’m underwater.”

The Morrisettes and the others were on an outing sponsored by a regional tourism group for people involved in the Niagara County hospitality industry, officials said.

Late Tuesday night, Lockport police identified the man killed as Harshad Shah, 65, whose wife accompanied him and was injured. Mr. Shah was the longtime president of the Budget Host Inn in Niagara Falls, according to an obituary posted online by a funeral home.

A relative of Mr Shah was reached by telephone and declined to comment as the family was still in mourning. In a statement to WGRZ, a Buffalo TV station, family members of Mr. Shah described him as a “family man” and said his wife “remains in shock, unable to come to terms with this fatal event unfolding before her eyes”.

On Monday, Lockport Police Chief Steven Abbott said the cave was being treated as a crime scene due to Mr Shah’s death. The Federal Office of Occupational Safety and Health was also investigating what caused the boat to overturn.

Lockport Superintendent Jason Dool ordered the attraction closed after being called by the police and found electrical hazards. One of the problems was wires in the water, he said in an interview.

Mr Dool said he had discussed the issues, which he said had not contributed to the capsizing, with a cave owner, Thomas Callahan, who said he intended to address them.

In response to a request for comment, Mr Callahan said via text message that the Lockport Cave company was “deeply saddened by this tragedy”.

“Our condolences go out to the family,” he said. The company collaborated with researchers, he added.

Lockport Cave isn’t the only tourist attraction in New York with an underground boat ride. Howe Caverns, which attracts 200,000 visitors a year to a site about 45 minutes west of Albany, offers something similar. An email to the general manager on Wednesday requesting information about security measures was not immediately returned.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.