This video is like watching a slow-motion train wreck, except that it shows two massive cargo ships in a head-on collision in the Welland Canal in southern Ontario. The 26-mile-long canal connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie.
The Alanis, a 452-feet-long cargo ship flagged in Antigua Barbuda, was heading up the canal to Duluth, Minnesota, with a cargo of wind turbine parts. At about 4 in the afternoon, it collided with the Florence Spirit, a 446-feet-long ship flagged in Canada and carrying a load of coal to Quebec.
They hit, horns blaring, with a crunching impact. No one was injured, and there was no environmental damage.
Authorities said hundreds of ships pass each other in that part of the canal every year. “In fact, it’s a preferred location for passing because there’s plenty of space, speed is limited, and it’s typically a safe area for passage,” Jean Aubry-Morin, the vice president of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., told the Welland Tribune.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada are investigating. See the video:
