Report: Failed Control Transfer Caused Ferry to Hit Dock, Injuring Two
A failed handoff of engine control between bridge stations caused a Québec ferry to hit a wharf in October 2024, injuring five people, according to a new report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). Investigators also found that the operator had not fully dealt with the risks that came with replacing the vessel's engine and controls.
The Radisson, a 1,062 GT RoRo passenger ferry built in 1954, serves as the relief vessel on the Québec–Lévis crossing each spring and fall. It was carrying 94 passengers and nine crew on October 18, 2024, when it hit the wharf at the Port of Québec. Four passengers and one crew member were hurt. The ferry's bow was lightly damaged, and several cars on the vehicle deck were damaged when they were thrown into each other. No pollution was reported.
The Radisson's original engine was replaced in the fall of 2022, along with its bridge controls. On the old setup, the control levers at the three bridge stations were connected by chains and moved together. The new electronic system has no such link: before a station can take command, the officer has to set its propulsion lever to roughly match the lever at the station giving up control. The ferry's owner, Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ), wrote a new procedure for the handoff, but the TSB found that it did not tell crews enough to complete a transfer or check that it had worked.
On the evening of the accident, the Radisson finished loading at Lévis at about 1718 and set out for wharf 92 on the Québec side, a run that normally takes as little as eight minutes. About a minute out, the master began shifting control from the starboard station to the port station, since the ferry would berth port side to. He then walked across the bridge to the port station.
Shortly after 1722, with the ferry making about 10 knots toward its berth, the master tried the port lever and got no response from the engine. The corner where wharves 91 and 92 meet was roughly 250 meters ahead. The bridge team tried to take control from the other two stations and failed. A vessel was moored at wharf 91 directly in the Radisson's path, so the master steered to port to avoid it. Seconds before 1724, the ferry hit the corner of the two wharves at 6.3 knots. One passenger was thrown down a ladderway and sustained serious injuries. The chief engineer was also thrown backward into an electrical panel, causing injuries. Several other passengers were thrown to the deck from the force of impact but were unhurt.
After the Radisson's new engine went in, STQ carried out a risk assessment. It rated several hazards as high, including hitting a wharf while arriving or departing and the failure of critical onboard equipment, and its planned remedy was to train bridge crews on the new controls. But investigators found no record of training specific to the new system, and the crew's general familiarization did not cover how to transfer control. That lack of preparation made it harder for the bridge team to realize the handoff had not gone through. Crews had also asked STQ for changes after earlier failed transfers aboard the Radisson in spring 2024, one of which also ended in a dock strike. Those changes including clearer instructions and a third person on the bridge. None had been adopted by the time of the accident.
Once the master started the transfer, it was hard to tell if it had been completed, TSB found: the indicator lights were small and hard to see in sunlight, and there was no audible alert. He only learned of the failure when he tried to slow the ferry on final approach, and by then there was not enough room to stop.
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The TSB also found weaknesses in how the crew was prepared to handle passengers in an emergency. No general alarm or public address warning was given before the impact.
Since the accident, STQ has posted the transfer procedure at each control station, rearranged the port station's panels to match the other two, and installed an alarm that sounds for as long as a transfer is in progress. It also temporarily added a third crew member to the bridge. Even with those changes in place, the Radisson hit a dock again in November 2025 after another failed engine control transfer, according to the report.
