Cruise ship crashes into the lock with 22 injured

A cruise ship has reportedly crashed into a wall while it was entering a lock on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Northern New York.The incident occurred around 9 pm on Thursday. Luckily there were no casualties although about 19 passengers and three crew members were injured. The cruise ship was travelling from Europe to Ontario, Canada. There were 192 passengers who were mostly Europeans and 81 crew members.

The M.S. Saint Laurent is a 4-star ocean going coastal vessel and the US Coast guard said that the 286 foot long ship which was headed from Montreal to Toronto had hit a wall. The Miami based ship operator, FleetPro confirmed that 22 individuals had suffered minor injuries and were taken to the Massena Memorial hospital so that they could receive appropriate treatment. Since the injuries were minor, the injured were released later.

The ship had run into an approach wall bumper due to which a hole was created in its hull. Soon water started entering the ship but the lock’s doors were closed by the crew which prevented the ship from sinking. Many people outside including the ship management kept tweeting about the matter so that others would remain updated on the matter. Later, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Department Corp. said that the ship was stable and there were no major injuries sustained by the people who had to stay inside the ship overnight before being rescued in the morning. The next day, the passengers disembarked from the ship and were taken to Montreal by bus, thus completing their journey.

In the beginning, it was reported that 27 passengers were injured but later on the number was revised to 22 by FleetPro. The investigation to find out the cause of the collision has started. Due to this collision, a total of 10 ships were stranded in the lock behind Saint Laurent.  Andrew Begora,an official representing St. Lawrence Seaway said,” At this stage we don’t expect that the lock will be reopening until, at earliest, sometime tomorrow.”