One dead, several injured in Lockport after boat capsizes during cave tour
One person was killed and multiple people were taken to area hospitals after a boat capsized during a cave tour of the Erie Canal in Lockport, Niagara County, on Monday.
Lockport police and fire departments and other agencies responded to the scene, according to a news release from the Lockport Police Department. The incident occurred around 11:25 a.m. Monday, according to police.
“The boat did a 180-degree turn, so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water,” Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano said at a news conference. “A number of victims were on top of that boat initially when rescuers got to them.”
Quagliano said all 29 people on board the flat-bottom boat were thrown into water, which is between 5 feet and 6 feet deep, when the boat apparently became unbalanced and capsized toward the end of the 300-foot-long tunnel.
Some passengers were able to get to safety on their own. Emergency repsonders using an inflatable boat rescued about 16 others, he said.
Authorities did not identify the man who died. His wife was taken to a hospital, officials said. The man who died was believed to have been stuck underneath the capsized boat before he was recovered, Quagliano said.
Eleven people were taken to area hospitals to be treated for minor injuries, including a person who suffered a broken arm and another who suffered a possible head injury, he said.
At the time of the incident, the boat was operating a morning tour of an underground tunnel built to carry water from the Erie Canal underneath the City of Lockport to area businesses. The water temperature in the cave is between 55 and 60 degrees.
The tours take visitors on an underground boat ride through a dimly lit, rough-hewn tunnel, which was blasted out in the 19th century to transport canal water as an industrial power source. Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman said that the attraction has operated since the mid-70s without incident. It will remain closed during an investigation.
Quagliano said that the boat can safely handle 40 people and that 28 passengers and one staff member were on board when it capsized. No one on board was wearing at a life vest when the boat capsized, he said. It was not clear whether life vests were required or offered.
Andrea Czopp of Destination Niagara USA, the tourism agency for Niagara County, said everyone on board the boat was local to Niagara County and that the boat tour was to help hospitality employees become more familiar with tourism offerings in the area.
She described Monday's capsizing as an "isolated incident and a tragedy." Authorities are investigating to determine what specifically caused the boat to overturn.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Numerous local agencies are investigating the incident, as are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA.) The National Transportation Safety Board was also notified, according to Lockport police.
“We have a lot of questions that need to be answered,” Lockport Police Chief Steven Abbott said at a mid-afternoon news conference.
Lockport, a city of about 21,000 residents, is located about 60 miles west of Rochester.
Includes reporting by The Associated Press and USA Today
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Boat capsizes in Erie Canal cave in Lockport NY: One dead, many injured
