SEATTLE — A state investigation has found that a Seattle ferry that was forced to turn around before a preseason Seahawks football game last month wasn’t overloaded, after all.
The ferry Cathlamet was en route from Bremerton to Seattle on Aug. 15 when the captain returned to dock over fears that it was overloaded by nearly 500 passengers. Officials said there was confusion about the vessel’s capacity.
But a report from the Washington Department of Transportation says that video surveillance showed about 1,073 passengers boarding before the ferry left Bremerton — below the boat’s capacity of 1,200, and well below the passenger count of 1,684 passengers that officials believed were on board.
The investigation report was released Monday under a public records request. It suggests that a malfunctioning hand-clicker used to count the passengers was to blame for the erroneous count.
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