Luling District, Luling — The tugboat crew was quickly rescued after the tugboat sank in the Mississippi River after colliding with an oil tanker in Louisiana.
St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said his office received a report of a collision between a ship and a tugboat Sunday night near the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge in Ruling, Louisiana.
“Preliminary reports indicate that all crew members on the tugboat have been rescued,” Champagne wrote on Facebook around 10 p.m. Sunday.
The sheriff’s office said the tanker was traveling upriver when it collided with a tugboat, causing the small vessel to sink, WWL-TV reported.
The sheriff’s office said emergency medical personnel will evaluate the crew and transport them to the hospital for treatment if necessary.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s 8th District office in New Orleans, known as Coast Guard Heartland, dispatched personnel to the scene, but people who entered the river at the time of the crash had already been rescued by the time guards arrived, WWL reported.
The Coast Guard told WWL that there will be an assessment of possible environmental impacts at the accident site in Ruling, about 37 kilometers west of New Orleans.
