Recently we reported on a tugboat going all submarine as it was washed under a bridge. Here we have another boat and another bridge, but very different circumstances. Not trying to turn this into BoatShift.com, sometimes we just go off on a tangent.
Our story begins on August 11, 2001. The lakes freighter Windoc is loaded with 26,000 tons of grain, and making her way down the Welland Canal in Canada. She approaches a vertical lift bridge carrying vehicle traffic over the canal. The procedure for approaching the bridge requires the bridge operator to watch for ships and flash a signal. If the ships pilot doesn’t see the signal, they contact the operator on the radio. The Windoc received the signal and the bridge went up.
Then things went sideways.
As the Windoc was about halfway under the lift span, it comes down. The captain sees what’s happening and orders the crew out of the wheelhouse. They scramble down a ladder to the deck, while the captain stays at his post. Concerned the boat could run out of control down the waterway, he grabbed the wheel and killed the engines, and got down on the floor. The wheelhouse was torn off just two feet above him. The funnel and everything else behind it was torn off and dumped on the deck.Now the boat is on fire. The crew is working on extinguishing the fire, and dropping the anchors. They were still moving at 5 knots, the canal is fairly shallow, they ended up running over the anchors and tearing holes in the hull. The incident put the shipping company out of business.
So what caused this? The official investigation said the bridge operator had taken pain killers earlier in the day, then a few glasses of wine for lunch. He was then asked to work on his off day, which he accepted. The report seems to allege that the operator was impaired at the time of the accident. It was his responsibility to make sure vessels were clear before lowering the bridge. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the boat was sold to a salvage company. While tied up at a pier, a storm tore it loose from its mooring and it ran aground.
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Was that “The Dude”??
In seriousness, that’s a raw deal for that shipping company all the way around.
In a fairer world, it would have been whoever was responsible (if that’s the right word here) for operating the bridge that would have been forced into bankruptcy.