A drifting ship collided with the bridge connecting Rio de Janeiro to the nearby city of Niteroi on Monday, an incident that left no one injured but caused major traffic disruptions in the area.
“The Rio-Niteroi bridge was closed in both directions due to the collision of a drifting boat with the bridge”, said on Twitter the federal traffic police (PRF) of Rio. A video filmed by the occupant of a car as he crossed the bridge, reported by local media, shows one of the ship’s towers extremely close and a noise that would correspond to the moment of the collision.
The concessionaire of the bridge “verifies the impact of the collision on the structure. The first impression is that it did not have more serious consequences, but we will only restart the traffic when we are sure., Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes told local media. The Navy said in a statement that the ship’s mooring lines have come loose “due to extreme weather conditions” Monday afternoon, and that it would be towed to the port of Rio.
The boat, which belongs to the Navegaçao Mansur company, is “subject to legal proceedings” and had been anchored in Guanabara Bay since 2016 “without posing any risk to navigation”, added the Navy, which will investigate the incident. According to the O Globo newspaper, the ship is 200 meters long and 30 meters wide. The Presidente Costa e Silva Bridge, commonly known as « bridge Rio-Niteroi »is an important crossing point in the region as it connects the two cities by crossing the bay.