As ferry system rebuilds, learn lessons of recent lapses

In his first memo to staff on Tuesday, the newly appointed head of Washington State Ferries said his goal is to shift “from an ego-based culture to a people-first, value-based culture.”

“I often say to my staff that we are the largest ferry system in the United States, and we ought to start acting like it,” Steve Nevey wrote. “Together, let’s become the standard of operational excellence against which every ferry system in the world measures itself.”

Nevey is right to commit to transformation in a troubled transportation system that fails to inspire the confidence it once did. But the former senior manager at Holland America Group, who joined WSF as its marine operations director in 2021, faces a tall task in delivering on that objective. His goal follows years of underfunding and mismanagement that has left the state’s 10-route marine highway network with too few boats and people to operate them.

Though it currently sails a fraction of its former schedule on a depleted fleet of vessels, WSF maintained a safety record of no fatalities due to crashes.

That almost changed in July 2022, when a longtime captain plowed the M/V Cathlamet into a group of pilings at the West Seattle dock, mangling the ferry. Passengers came close to serious injury as steel collapsed toward them. A federal investigation concluded the captain, Dave Cole, likely fell asleep in the wheelhouse. He resigned the day after the crash.

A recent investigation by KING 5 found Cole had a history of reprimands — failing to show up at work on several occasions and even falsifying a logbook to hide his absence. Ferry workers warned WSF leaders they “didn’t feel safe” with him at the helm in an unsigned note.

The crash sidelined a boat in a thinly stretched fleet, further tarnished the system’s reputation and cost millions of dollars — insurance premiums alone rose 15.7% for the entire system in 2024 in part because of the collision.

Meanwhile, the state just paid $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit in which ferry employees allowed a clearly intoxicated driver to depart a vessel and onto Whidbey Island, where she killed two people after hitting their vehicle head-on. Ferries’ deckhands should not have allowed her to drive off, but with no Washington State Patrol trooper available near the Clinton dock, they let her drive away, with fatal consequences.  

Finally, the M/V Walla Walla ran aground last April on Bainbridge Island while plying the Seattle-Bremerton run. In that case, it wasn’t the crew, but rather the aged vessel that caused the problem. Clogged fuel filters, the result of bacterial and fungal growth in diesel storage tanks, killed the power to the 50-year-old Walla Walla’s generators and disabled its steering, causing the grounding. No one was hurt.

These three events are reminders of the potential perils of operating a system of hundreds of sailings each day. No matter the monotony, staff members cannot become complacent or unwilling to raise the alarm before things go wrong.

Nevey expressed to staff a desire for a new culture “where everyone is aligned with the big picture and understands how seemingly small decisions or actions that they make affect the wider organization.”

Nevey is a veteran mariner with more than two decades of experience, rather than a state Department of Transportation bureaucrat, at the helm of a system that transported 18.6 million people in 2023.

He must ensure the three recent incidents are a wake-up call, rather than a harbinger of more calamity to come.