Toronto Island ferry Sam McBride will resume regular service after weekend crash

A Toronto Island ferry docked at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal Tuesday, Aug. 23. (Clara Pasieka/CBC - image credit)
A Toronto Island ferry docked at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal Tuesday, Aug. 23. (Clara Pasieka/CBC - image credit)

A Toronto Island ferry that was involved in a crash over the weekend that injured 12 passengers will return to regular service Wednesday, the City of Toronto announced.

The Sam McBride has not made any trips since the vessel collided with a dock at Jack Layton Ferry Terminal around 5 p.m. on Saturday.

More than 900 people were aboard the ferry when the incident occurred. The vessel had no significant damage and the dozen riders who were injured, two of whom were reportedly children, sustained minor injuries.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating the crash. Investigator Pearse Flynn spoke to the media Tuesday morning at the ferry terminal where he asked members of the public with photos or video of the collision to share them with investigators.

Currently, he said, investigators are collecting data and conducting witness interviews. Some areas the agency looks into at this phase include examining equipment, operating procedures and maintenance history. Following that part of the process, investigators will then try to build a sequence of events.

"At this point, it's still too early to say what the cause of and contributing factors are for this occurrence," Flynn said.

He added that the TSB's role is not to assign blame for the crash, but to find safety issues in the system and communicate them so they can be prevented in the future.

Following the collision, riders told CBC News that they believed the ferry was travelling too fast when the collision occurred.

Toronto police said its marine unit is also investigating the crash.

The City of Toronto announced Monday that Transport Canada cleared the ferry to return to service after it was inspected by safety experts.