According to an article published in BBC, a massive cruise ship lost control in Venice, crashing into a wharf and sparking a fresh controversy over the damage the mammoth vessels cause to one of the world’s most famous cities.
What happened?
Footage posted to social media showed people in the harbor fleeing as the 13-deck MSC Opera, which suffered an engine failure, scraped along the dockside before knocking into a luxury tourist boat on June 2.
Four tourists were slightly injured in the accident at San Basilio-Zattere in Venice’s Giudecca Canal, port authorities said. The foreigners, aged between 67 and 72 years old, were from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, according to media reports.
The incident came just days after a river cruise ship collided with a sightseeing vessel in Budapest, killing seven people and leaving 21 missing.
Cruise ship suffers engine failure
The Opera — which can carry more than 2,500 passengers and boasts a theater, ballroom and water park for children — has suffered mechanical trouble before, in 2011, during a Baltic cruise.
“The MSC ship had an engine failure, which was immediately reported by the captain,” Davide Calderan, head of a tugboat company involved in accompanying the ship into its berth, told Italian media. “The engine was blocked, but with its thrust on, because the speed was increasing,” he said.
The two tug boats that had been guiding the ship into the Giudecca tried to slow it, but one of the chains linking them to the giant snapped under the pressure, he added.
Call for ban on cruise ship’s to enter Giudecca canal
Critics say such ships pose a conservation risk to the lagoon city, pollute its waters and mar its beauty.
Ministers said the crash proved the need for a ban on liners, and that they were working to resolve the problem. “What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time,” Environment Minister Sergio Costa wrote on Twitter (in Italian). He added, “Cruise ships must not sail down the Giudecca. We have been working on moving them for months now… and are nearing a solution.”
Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli agreed, writing on Twitter (in Italian) that the incident was proof that big ships should not travel on the Giudecca.
“After many years of inertia, we are finally close to a definitive solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism,” he said.
City’s foundations eroded by waves
The Giudecca, which leads to the popular St Mark’s Square, is one of Venice’s major waterways. Critics say waves created by cruise ships on the canal erode the foundations of the city, which regularly suffers from flooding.
Some have also complained that they detract from the beauty of Venice’s historic sites and bring too many tourists.
Exploring solutions to curb traffic
Venice’s port authority called for action to resolve the issue of high cruise ship traffic.
“Now is the time to handle the situation… to work to understand what happened and to find a solution, once and for all,” Pino Musolino, president of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority wrote on Twitter (in Italian).
The government has previously tried to resolve the cruise ship debate. In 2013, it banned ships weighing more than 96,000 tonnes from the Giudecca canal but the legislation was later overturned.
In 2017, the government announced that it would divert larger ships away from the historic center. However, the plans were expected to take four years to come into force. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro on Sunday urged immediate action to open the alternative channel, known as the Vittorio Emanuele
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Source: BBC
