{"id":366240,"date":"2026-10-06T21:26:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366240\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T21:26:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:26:57","slug":"nj-ferry-hits-pier-shatters-windows-during-morning-commute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/366240\/","title":{"rendered":"NJ ferry hits pier, shatters windows during morning commute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\ud83d\udea2 Commuters were headed to Manhattan when the ferry struck the pier and shattered several windows.\ud83d\ude33 Passengers said plexiglass went flying and questioned why the vessel continued to Manhattan.\u26a0\ufe0f Monmouth County officials say they learned about the incident from passengers, not NY Waterway.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nj1015.com\/tags\/middletown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MIDDLETOWN<\/a> \u2014 A New Jersey ferry struck a pier while leaving the Belford terminal Tuesday morning, shattering several windows and leaving passengers questioning why the vessel continued its trip into Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/attachment-wkxwfm-square.png\" alt=\"New Jersey 101.5 FM logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Around 6:30 a.m., the Molly Pitcher was leaving the Belford Ferry Terminal when it hit the pier&#8217;s banking system. Several windows were smashed.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, ferry operator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nywaterway.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NY Waterway<\/a> said that the damaged vessel&#8217;s windows should be repaired before the end of Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The safety and wellbeing of our passengers is always our first priority. We apologize to our Belford customers who were on board during this incident for any inconvenience or discomfort it may have caused.<\/p>\n<p>According to NY Waterway, there were no injuries that required medical attention reported by passengers or crew.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/attachment-passengers-look-out-the-broken-windows-of-a-ferry-after-a-crash-on-oct-6-2026-courtesy-of.webp\" alt=\"Passengers look out the broken windows of a ferry after a crash on Oct. 6, 2026. (Courtesy of Erika Rech)\" loading=\"lazy\" onload=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('frame-loaded');\" onerror=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('broken-image');\" fetchpriority=\"low\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\"\/>Passengers look out the broken windows of a ferry after a crash on Oct. 6, 2026. (Courtesy of Erika Rech)Passengers look out the broken windows of a ferry after a crash on Oct. 6, 2026. (Courtesy of Erika Rech)Passengers describe shattered windows<\/p>\n<p>Passenger Phil Frasciello said plexiglass shattered all over the place, but he didn&#8217;t notice any injuries besides one woman who may have had a small cut on her ear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was sitting in the middle by some tables. Luckily not near the windows,&#8221; Frasciello said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Frasciello, the crew directed everyone to the second deck for the remainder of the morning commute. NY Waterway confirmed the ferry finished its journey to Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p>Fellow passenger Erika Rech said it didn&#8217;t seem like the ferry slowed down at all, which she said was the most concerning part.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s the part I really don\u2019t understand. We were still basically at the port. I would have 100% expected the ferry to re-dock, make sure passengers were okay, inspect the damage, and then either continue if everything was cleared or move people onto another vessel,&#8221; Rech said.<\/p>\n<p>Monmouth officials say they weren&#8217;t notified<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, local officials said that NY Waterway never alerted them about the crash.\u00a0Monmouth County Commissioner Director Tom Arnone said they found out about the incident from passengers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The County is taking this matter extremely seriously and is exploring all options available to us, including potential legal action, to hold NY Waterway accountable and ensure the safety of our ferry riders,&#8221; Arnone said.<\/p>\n<p>Middletown Mayor Tony Perry said he also spoke with Arnone, who called for\u00a0unannounced inspections of NY Waterway operations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our residents depend on this ferry service every day, and they deserve transportation that is safe, reliable, and held to the highest standards,&#8221; Perry said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nj1015.com\/belford-ferry-strikes-pier-middletown\/mailto:trenton.dme@townsquaremedia.com?subject=Feedback or correction\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Report a correction<\/a> \ud83d\udc48 | \ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/nj1015.com\/contact-nj-1015-newsroom\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Contact our newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most visited restaurants and diners in Monmouth County, NJ<\/p>\n<p>These establishments logged the most visits in Monmouth County last year.<\/p>\n<p>The data \u2014 from May 2025 to May 2026 \u2014 comes from Townsquare partner Placer.Ai, which uses foot traffic, real estate and other location-based data for trend analysis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/nj1015.com\/author\/rickrickman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rick Rickman<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Which states have the most expensive electric bills?<\/p>\n<p>The average total electricity cost in the United States last year was $1,820. That was an increase of $110, or 6.4%, from 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Energy Information Administration\u00a0via the Joint Economic Committee\u00a0Democrats<\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea2 Commuters were headed to Manhattan when the ferry struck the pier and shattered several windows.\ud83d\ude33 Passengers said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,14472,9,24,63,17805],"class_list":["post-366240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-jersey-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-ultimate-new-jersey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}