Many accidents happen at low speed - berthing. Factors considered were reliability of hardware systems, personal performance of bridge staff, commercial drivers. Seventy-eight individual risk control measures which were identified addressed accident scenarios and their causes. Those then were grouped into 24 potential regulatory options. The conclusion was that risks to passengers and crew in high speed ferries are higher than previous experience indicated.
Federal funds are available for the construction of intermodal connections to reduce risk.
Human error is responsible for most of the marine accidents. Operators of faster craft follow industry standards, not government regulations. Fire drills and man overboard drills were the training in years past. Now there is new additional training for operators of craft in excess of 28 knots. McKernan advocates more proactive steps to develop and implement higher standards of safety, communications protocols, as well as in the in-house training for operators of high speed ferries.