The pilot of the La Primavera has racked up 1,5 million euros' worth of damage after she was under the influence steering the ship down the Rhine River and crashed the vessel.
German ship damaged in drunken collision on the Rhine
The pilot of a German boat has incurred 1,5 million euros in damages after drunkenly colliding her vessel into a lock on the River Rhine. German police are now conducting an investigation into the woman, who was considerably drunk at the time of the incident, for endangering shipping.
“The situation would probably have been different after just one glass of beer. She was already properly intoxicated," a police spokesperson told Deutsche Welle.
The woman was navigating the vessel from Basel in Switzerland to Karsruhe in Baden-Württemberg when she smashed it into the lock’s gate. Lucky, neither the ship nor any nearby people were injured, but the lock gate will now have to undergo a costly replacement.
Lock repairs will cause shipping delays on the Rhine
The expensive repairs are expected to take about a year, and since there are only two locks on this part of the river, the disruption will likely cause shipping delays.
That the repairs will take so long is also because such accidents occur only very rarely: “Nobody has anything like this [lock gate] in stock," said the police spokesperson.
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