On Thursday, a Russian freighter struck a highway bridge in Busan, causing damage to the vessel and to the structure. Korean Coast Guard investigators are examining whether the master’s alleged intoxication may have been a contributing factor.
According to Busan’s police, the 9,700 dwt Seagrand allided with a moored cruise ship in the harbor, then struck the lower deck of the Gwangan Bridge at about 1620 hours local time on Thursday. She allegedly backed down and departed the scene after the allision.
The Seagrand’s foremast struck the bottom of the bridge span, and the mast structure collapsed upon impact. Drivers on the highway bridge paused momentarily, then resumed their commutes; police later closed off the section for inspections. Video from the scene indicates that the steel support structure for the bridge span suffered significant damage, including a six-foot-long hole in one of the span’s giant steel girders.
After the allision, Korea Coast Guard personnel boarded the Seagrand and administered a blood-alcohol content test to the crew. According to the KCG, the captain had a BAC of about 0.09 percent, roughly three times the legal limit for a watchstander; however, it is not yet clear whether he had the conn at the time of the casualty, and the other crew on watch showed no signs of intoxication. Local media reported that VTS operators tried to direct the Seagrand onto a safe course, but were not able to effectively communicate with her because “the captain of the Russian ship was not able to speak English properly.”
fucking ROOSHINS! Wouldn’t have happened with an American there!
this is now becoming even more of an inexplicable accident since once I decided to look at the Gangwan Bridge on Google Maps I found the ship hit the structure in what is basically a closed basin
based in the video and the perspective of the camera, the ship would have been right about where the yellow mark is…WHAT THE FUCK! How did the ship get there with no pilot onboard or anything?
Never mind how the ship got there. How did that bridge get there? Who builds a 4 mile offshore causeway whose only purpose appears to be to bypass the more direct land routes?
If you have ever driven through Busan the answer would be self evident.
More than once while driving from the airport in Busan back to Ulsan I made a wrong turn. Once I made the remark to the guy I was driving, “I think I have been lost this way before”.
Where else would you take the necessary land area for this double-deck highway bridge?
On the coast-side of the bridge is just a small (lobster?) 50’-boat harbor.
However, there is the city beach and the densely packed tourist quarter behind it.
The entire video shows the ship trying to stop – too late.
The foremast could indeed not stop the ship but the boom of the deck crane did… and punched a hole in the bridge structure.
so the ship went into that basin, bashed a ship at the wharf then turned towards the bridge and T-Boned that? I’ve never heard of such a story before!
really and truly makes me realize the level of mayhem someone can commit with a ship. Who is there to stop you? By the time the guns all arrive it’s just too damned late…damage done.
