Container Ship Gashed In Collision With Bay Bridge

KTVU ^ | November 7, 2007

[yorkie]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A 920-foot container ship, heading out of the San Francisco Bay from the Port Of Oakland, collided with a supporting tower of the fog-shrouded Bay Bridge early Wednesday, damaging its hull but it was not known if it caused any damage to the vital traffic artery.

The collision happened at about 8:15 a.m. during the morning commute but did not disrupt traffic on the bridge.

[Ramius]

Yikes... that’s a good bit of damage to that ship. Looks like he scraped it pretty hard.

Any word on whether they’re closing the bridge or not?

[bert]

A supporting tower is a pier

[P3_Acoustic]

Of course the ship was empty. You don’t think we’d be exporting anything. But I’m glad to see some of the empty containers being returned. There are huge stacks of them here in the Tidewater Virginia area.

[mad_as_he$$]

19 years, Santa Cruz.

[Just another Joe]

19 years, Santa Cruz.

Ah HA!

;^)

[B4Ranch]

I think we are going to hear something about mechanical failure. That bridge and any currents would be like the back of your hand to a local pilot.

[editor-surveyor]

There’s something really wrong here. The channel leading out of the port is very clear on sonar, and has submerged reflectors that light up like beacons on the display.

[pbear8]

The bridge supports have massive wooden pilings surrounding them This is what the ship hit. They inspected and have not closed the bridge.

[null and void]

*shrug* I live maybe 10 km from The Bay (there's only the one Bay on earth), and 100 km from San Fransisco. Should I not consider myself as living the the Bay Area?

BTW, I'm lobbying to change the name of that body of water. 'San Fransisco Bay' is such a mouthful, where as 'San Jose Bay' is alliterative and rolls off the tongue...

[Just another Joe]

Yeh, I know, but most people only know San Jose from the song.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

For most people, the San Francisco Bay is all about San Francisco.

[null and void]

Yeh, I know, but most people only know San Jose from the song.

Renaming the Bay (or even the controversy about renaming it) would fix that...

[Syncro]

Well no wonder some hot-doggin' steersman tried to go through sideways!
He almost made it

[Reeses]

There was little damage to the bridge in part because of the bridge’s bumper system but also because the ship was going outbound to South Korea with hardly anything loaded but empty containers. Had it been inbound the inertia of the ship might have been more serious. Ships are required to hire special local pilots who know the area when they get here to enter the bay so this was probably a SF crew screw up. Sometimes there is a tug boat assist for better steering in the narrow channels but not usually for outbound.

[FDNYRHEROES]

He might be able to do a song and dance to the Coasties. Depends on who he is and his record.

Or it might be a she....There are female ships pilots as well in SF Bay...

[pbear8]

No, it’s a guy. He’s really well thought of in the Bay. He’s been a pilot since 81. I won’t name him here but I talked to someone who has an official capacity and short of instrumentation problems...well, it doesn’t look good.

[fish hawk]

Tacoma Narrows?

[Reeses]

The word is out, it was Capt. John Cota, j.cota@sfbarpilots.com

Bar pilot on errant ship had several mishaps in past

I feel bad for guy, everyone makes mistakes, but I bet he will be retiring early over this one. I'm curious, what's a captain's career like as far as pay and work hours and time away from home? Is it a union job? Do captains want their children to follow in their footsteps?

[editor-surveyor]

"'San Fransisco Bay' is such a mouthful"

Maybe Otis Redding had it right: "Frisco Bay."

[editor-surveyor]

"People that live in San Francisco have no reason to take the Bay Bridge."

A popular misconception.

The reverse commute is about half of the main flow, but it is substantial. I've had several employees that lived in SF and commuted across that bridge.

[editor-surveyor]

"FWIW the vessel is South Korean. Just in case some might think the name implies Chinese."

Not so!

The Busan is owned by the Chinese Ocean Shipping Co. which is a subsidiary of the Red Chinese Army.