The employees, who are not now targets of the inquiry, are mainly being questioned about rules and procedures of the ferry operation, one law enforcement official said.
Since the accident, the city has been revamping its ferry operation, pledging to institute rules and procedures and improve training.
Investigators also want to determine whether Captain Gansas was in the pilothouse with Captain Smith, as the ferry's standard operating procedures require.
THEORIES about procedures on ferries circulated for days after the accident, inevitably, fueled by the fact that the Department of Transportation would not release the rules until Monday -- five days after the accident -- citing the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
In 2002, Mr. Ryan, who was writing up standard operating procedures for the ferry, sent a draft to higher-ups in the City Department of Transportation and to the Coast Guard, but he never gave them to crew members, she said.
In a decision that could force the city's Department of Transportation to rethink its procedures for testing ferry employees, the judge also concluded that the breath test used on the assistant captain, Robert Sander, was so flawed that its positive results must be discounted.
He is also to be arraigned on three counts of lying to investigators who questioned him about the crash and about the ferry's operating rules and procedures, including one requiring both pilots to be in the wheelhouse at all times.
Fig. 4 Ferries based process.
City policies require the captain to be in the pilothouse while the vessel is docking, although several current and former ferry officers have said the procedure is often ignored.
City policies require the captain to be in the wheelhouse while the vessel is docking, although several current and former ferry officers have said the procedure is often ignored.
But several current and former veteran ferry officers have said that the procedure is often ignored.
