The collision between the MSC Opera and the River Countess report to overturns the issue of the transit of the great ships to Venice



The incident yesterday to Venice, with oceanic cruise ship MSC Opera of MSC Cruises that - apparently for a damage to the engine - the fluvial cruise ship River Countess of the Uniworld moored to San Basilio has hit, has thrown again the issue of the transit of the great ships in the Venetian lagoon and in particular in the Channel of the Giudecca from which they pass in order to reach the crocieristico terminal of the Marine one. The incident has caused four light wounded between the passengers of the fluvial boat.

Company MSC Cruises has supplied an explanation of dynamics of the incident having specified that the MSC Opera, "in maneuver of approach to the terminal cruises of Venice for the mooring, has had a technical problem. The ship was accompanied by two tugs, as it previews the safety procedure of the transit in the channel of the Giudecca and - although the commander had immediately put in being all the previewed procedures - it has hit the dock to the height of San Basilio. Contextually a collision with the fluvial boat River Countess has happened, that there it was moored. While they are still in course the assessments in order to understand exact dynamics of the facts and the causes of the happened one, from quickly - it has evidenced the company - MSC Cruises it has operated in close collaboration with the competent marine authorities. In the next moments to the incident, the priority has been to put in safety the boat, its passengers and its crew. In the next phase the ship has had then to proceed to the works of recovery of the anchors put in water at the moment of the incident, as from procedures in these cases. Alle 13,15 CET the ship has been able to begin to move itself in direction of the Marine terminal". MSC Cruises has concluded the note expressing "all own support to all the people involved in the incident, beginning from the crew of the River Countess, all its passengers in particular those wounded, happy who meantime are almost all discharged states, until naturally to the society Uniworld owner of a shipping company".

The incident has been occasion for a new crash in the within of the government, with vice-president and minister of the Inside, the union member Matteo Salvini, that it has accused a ministry guided from the Alloy not to have blocked a project in order to avoid the problems of the transit of the ships already ready from last year, while the holder of the Ministry of Infrastructures and the transports, pentastellato Danilo Toninelli, emphasizing that the incident demonstrates that the great ships do not have more to pass from the Giudecca, has announced that "after many years of inertia, finally we are near to a definitive solution in order to protect is the lagoon that tourism".

Also pentastellato Alberto Bonisoli, minister for the Assets and the cultural activities, has asserted that the incident is the confirmation that the great ships do not have more to pass for the Giudecca, and is for this - it has added - that the Ministry of the Assets and the cultural activities, some months ago, has place the tie on three channels of Venice, comprised that of the Giudecca, and we are working together with Ministers Costa and Toninelli in order to resolve the problem of the great ships in lagoon. We are - it has specified Bonisoli - more neighbors to the better solution in order protect the city of Venice and its lagoon, to safeguard the atmosphere and to guarantee the incolumità of citizens and tourists. Incidents as those today, where us they have miraculously not been victims, will not have more to happen". Bonisoli, stating that today all are saying that they do not want that the great ships child's step for the channel of the Giudecca, have found that between costoro there are "also those which have appealed to the Regional Administrative Court against the tie of the Ministry of the Assets and the cultural activities to protection of Venice. For coherence - it has concluded - same the hour they withdraw the resource. Enough hypocrisy, yes sets in action concrete".

Evidencing that "the incident could have resolved a tragedy", also the president of the Region of Veneto, Luca Zaia, has asserted that the episode "makes us consequently to reflect newly on the topic of the transit of the great ships in the long basin of San Marco and the channel of the Giudecca and on the their wished removal". "We are still discussing - Zaia has remembered - about the application of I decree that it carries the names of ministers Clini and Passera who is not neither vain neither superfluous to remember that they were titular of ministry in by now far away the government Monti. We are speaking about 2011 while the proposals of the Region of Veneto and the Municipality of Venice for a practicability of the great ships giacciono near the ministries interested from years. The minister of Infrastructures - he has exhorted Zaia - decides something; he cannot himself be more attended. The incidents are absolutely possible in the merchant navy, but they must happen outside from competed for historical and lived without to put risk human lives and in general conditions of safety. The proposals of Municipality and Region are wise and feasible, they preview a practicability alternative and the possibility of for the ships maneuvering in conditions of absolute safety. I repeat - it has concluded the president of the Region - the minister to this point decides quickly. It immediately has also the realizable opportunity and the fortune to have proposed that they come from the territory and the agencies mainly involved".

The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has spoken about "grazed and announced tragedy". "From years - it has continued - we say that the great ships do not have to pass in front of San Marco. Vittorio Emanuele - he has specified the mayor referring to the hypothesis to make to journey the ships through this Channel - has been the solution shared from Municipality, Metropolitan City, Venetian Region and government precedence during Comitatone. For a year - it has specified Brugnaro - the decision is in hand of minister Toninelli".

As a result of the incident also Assarmatori, the shipowning association to which joins MSC Cruises, has diffused a note in which it remembers that "the debate on the great ships to Venice is in existence by now from years". In the light of how much happened in lagoon the association it has turned "a invitation in particular to the institutions and the government so that the times of a definitive choice are accelerated that conjugates the real necessity to defend the role of crocieristico home port of Venice and the requirements of safety, environmental and artistic protection of the city. And in this optical - the note concludes - Assarmatori remembers as it is on the table for a long time the project that previews the dredgings and therefore a solution alternative to the Giudecca through I use it of the Vittorio Emanuele channel".