Kiel- The Kiel Canal, the “Suez Canal of Germany”, was closed for hours – because a small tram blocked the busiest artificial navigation route in the world!
On Christmas Day, in the afternoon, an accident occurred at the Holtenau south lock in Kiel, with serious consequences.
An electric vehicle crashed into the lock
Photo: danfoto
At around 3:30 pm, the lock master was about to open the canal side gate and let the three ships that were in the lock enter the canal from the Baltic Sea when this happened.
A small blue battery-powered car that had just returned from supplying one of the ships was caught when the lock gate was opened and became trapped in the bunker on the Wiker side when it fell into the level between the gate and the wall. The driver of the car managed to jump out in time and get to safety. He escaped unharmed and was scared.
But now the stuck battery car has blocked the gate, which was already open 15 meters away when the accident occurred. The southern chamber's sluice gate could therefore not be moved. Recovering the car, which weighed almost a ton, was difficult because there was no emergency technical service on Christmas Day and the lock workshops were all closed…
The lock was therefore taken out of operation and three ships were still trapped in the chamber. The freighters “Emma”, “Mistral” and “Lafjell” were trapped. More ocean giants were already piled up behind him.
The Kiel Canal connects the two seas between Kiel and Brunsbüttel and is 98 kilometers long. Around 30,000 ships pass through each year, avoiding the time-consuming 460-kilometre detour via the Cimbrian Peninsula (Jutland), Skagerrak and Kattegat.
Large ships such as the 134 meter long “Mistral” are stuck in the south lock and are unable to advance
Photo: danfoto
Because the canal-side sluice was ajar, the lock master could not simply open the downstream sluice because the water pressure would have caused more damage to the partially open sluice. Therefore, the three ships had to wait until the trapped battery car was rescued.
There's a giant container in the lock
Photo: danfoto
A mega crane, whose boom extends beyond the gate bunker, finally lifted the car out of the jam – an extremely difficult task.
A crane is in use directly at the lock
Photo: danfoto
The south lock is open again. The Kiel water police have started investigations at the scene.
The important Kiel Canal connects the North Sea (mouth of the Elbe) with the Baltic Sea (Kiel Fjord). The foundation stone was laid in 1887.