Two more incidents with ships on Main river - names not mentioned in news report

[notamermaid]

According to local news reports two ships of the same Swiss company were involved in incidents on the Main river on 1 November. In the first incident near Miltenberg a collision was narrowly avoided after the captain of the vessel did not communicate with other river traffic. The barge following the passenger vessel made an emergency manouvre to avoid a hit which according to police could have resulted in the passenger ship being pushed against a nearby bridge. A close call!

 

The second incident was an actual accident - again involving a bridge! This time a narrow bridge/walkway at the lock Obernau got in the way of the wheelhouse of a passenger vessel. The wheelhouse - which had not been lowered to reduce the overall height of the ship - was demolished and the crew member in it only just managed to get out in time. The ship could not sail on and the river cruise ended for the poor passengers near Aschaffenburg. It was headed towards Amsterdam.

 

Now which company is it? You might suspect something. But I have to stick to reported facts. So here is: according to cruisetricks.de research the second vessel is the Viking Ingvi. The first vessel's name I could not find in reports. http://www.cruisetricks.de/erneut-unfall-eines-viking-flusskreuzfahrtschiffs/ Here it is mentioned - contrary to the local news report - that the ship sailed on. Both report coach trips for the passengers. News report is on infranken.de

 

Both captains will be charged with offences against river traffic laws. The damage has not been assessed yet but is believed to be several 10 000 euros.

 

Please note that there are time discrepancies between the two websites, so if one you knows more or has been unfortunate enough to have been a passenger of the two vessels, you are more than welcome to clarify.

 

notamermaid

Edited November 4, 2016 by notamermaid
additional information

[steamboats]

Here´s a link to the police report (all online news just copied it). Both incidents happend on Tuesday.

 

Sorry, about the time discrepancies. We spent some time researching this incident and due to the holiday on Tuesday we got a little bit confused :rolleyes:.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Thank you, steamboats, for your reply. I always find public holidays get in the way of normal routine, they mix up schedules, shopping, etc. And we had to deal with the time change at the weekend...

 

The Viking Ingvi is now in the Netherlands according to marinetraffic.com whereas with passengers onboard I presume she would still be in Germany.

 

notamermaid

[Daisi]

Wow... glad no-one was hurt this time, although it sounds as if due to some poor decisions, passengers holidays have been upset.

[Got2Cruise]

As we say in NY . . . Not for Nothing but it was another Viking Passenger ship. Just saying . . .

 

 

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[KathyK13]

One of the German newspapers mentioned that both ships were from the same company. Thankfully no injuries on either.

 

I know this has been discussed extensively in other posts, but has the increase in ships on the rivers made collisions more likely? Have any other cruise lines' ships been involved in accidents?

[steamboats]

@KathyK13: It's probably not so much the number of ships on the river but a shortage of experienced and well trained navigational staff that makes accidents like this more likely. The number of new ships probably has some indirect influence on this as with every new ship you need additional staff. And building a ship takes much less time than training someone to become a good captain ...

[notamermaid]

Hello KathyK13,

 

the recent incidents with Viking ships do make me think. The bridges are the same height for every ship, so why does Viking have these problems? Or are they just unlucky? I tend to agree with steamboats that the recent increase in the number of ships and the crews needed - who are mostly recruited from East European countries these days, i.e. the new, young staff - is a major factor to consider in this.

 

An increase in river ship traffic is statistically significant perhaps in the fact that more accidents have shown up in reports in recent years.

 

But it does not explain away the number of Viking accidents: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2400808&page=8 post #160. I have since learned about another incident with the Viking Ve (not this year).

 

Other companies' accidents have been due to unfortunate collisions with barges or ropes tearing from a speed boat getting too close, hitting a sand bank, hitting locks, hitting bridges, or even the captain being under the influence of alcohol. Hardly any company has been spared this: I could find some Dutch ones (some chartered by UK companies), the grand old MS Britannia (ex KD, ex-Viking ship), the TUI Sonata (since been renamed), the DCS Amethyst, two Transocean ships, at least two Arosa ships (one accident had around a dozen passengers injured), The Uniworld River Queen and another ship of Uniworld, a few CroisiEurope ships, one Phoenix ship, one Avalon ship. One US company is missing in the headlines, that I will not name, not wanting to tempt fate.

 

These are the incidents of the last four years.

 

One spectacular accident with luckily minor impact to life happened in Basel in 2014. A barge sunk very fast, the MS Olympia could not get out the way in time, hit the vessel, and then hit the CroisiEurope Lafayette tied up at the embankment. It was filmed and posted on youtube.

 

notamermaid

Edited November 5, 2016 by notamermaid