A cruise ship, the Prinzessin Isabella which was carrying 165 passengers collided with a cargo ship on the Danube in Romania on Saturday, 5 October.
The cruise ship suffered significant damage in the superstructure area. Passengers’ cabins on the upper deck were crushed and torn open and according to Maritime Bulletin two passengers were injured, though not seriously.
Some sources identified the general cargo ship, which was flying the Panama flag, as Blue Star I but this has yet to be confirmed.
The Danube is Europe’s second-largest river (after the Volga) and is extremely popular for cruises. The river has its source in Germany and flows southeast for 2,860 kilometers, passing through or along the border of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before it empties into the Black Sea.
Speaking to The Telegraph, specialist cruise writer Sara Macefield says, ‘The river cruise industry is currently going through a massive boom’ and questions have been raised about whether the river is too crowded.
In May a small sightseeing boat called Mermaid sank on the Danube, near Budapest, in seven seconds after colliding with the Viking river ship Sigyn. The small boat was carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members. The Korean tourists were not wearing life jackets and according to BBC, 20 people were confirmed dead and eight remained missing.
While an outright ban of cruise ships may be a step too far, good management of waterways, harbours and river systems is imperitive. Venice has been working towards banning large cruise ships and another protest by those opposed to cruise ships in the Venetian canals followed when a cruise ship crashed into a dock in Venice after experiencing a mechanical problem.
Italian authorities confirmed that the incident supported the work that they have been doing to ban these ships.
Images: Maritime Bulletin
