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Inquiry into Channel collision
DOVER, England -- An investigation has started into how a ship carrying 70,000 tonnes of highly flammable kerosene hit a submerged car transporter in the English Channel. Inspections are being carried out on the Turkish-registered Vicky to see whether any fuel is leaking into the Channel after the collision at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Vicky is the second vessel to strike the Tricolor, which was carrying 2,862 BMWs, Volvos and Saabs worth an estimated £30 million when it sank off the French port of Dunkirk after a collision on December 14. Maritime union bosses said it "beggared belief" that another such crash had happened. Journalist Romilly Weeks told CNN the Vicky had been damaged, and there was still some risk of kerosene leaking into the sea. "But the coastguard is hopeful that even if there is a major leak, then kerosene being highly flammable will evaporate quite quickly, so there won't be massive damage to the coastline," she said. None of the 24 crew on board the Vicky, a 243 metre-long, 43,000 tonne tanker which was sailing from Antwerp in Belgium to New York, was injured. The ship became stuck on the Tricolor but later came free with the rising tide. The captain sailed the vessel about a mile away and dropped anchor before beginning to survey for damage. Maritime union NUMAST said "Russian roulette" was being played with shipping safety in the Channel.
Union spokesman Andrew Linington told the UK Press Association he was "appalled" to hear of the latest accident. "About 90 percent of accidents like this are the result of the human factor," he said. "People are the key to shipping safety and it's time attention was drawn to the people on board ships and the conditions they work under. "There is a constant drive to reduce crewing levels and people can be working 80 to 90 hours a week on busy waterways like these." The Dover Coastguard spokeswoman said that despite hourly warnings to ships in the Channel about the submerged Tricolor, the ultimate responsibility always lay with the master of any vessel. She said: "We have been conducted VHF radio broadcasts warning of the wreck of the Tricolor every hour, as have the French authorities. The information has been out there. It is for any subsequent investigation to say what happened in this case." The wreckage is marked by five illuminated buoys, including one that is radar-equipped. Mark Clark, spokesman for the Maritime Coastguard Agency, said: "It just emphasises how busy this stretch of water is. There's four to five hundred ship movements through it per day." The Vicky, built in 1981, is a single-hulled, double-bottomed vessel -- meaning it has an extra layer of metal around the base of the hull. The Norwegian Tricolor sank after colliding with the Bahamas-registered container ship Kariba in thick fog. The wreck of the Tricolor was hit again by the Nicola, a 3,000-tonne ship registered in the Dutch Antilles, on December 16. (Full story)
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