Mexico Ferry Boat Sinks After Being Rammed by Barge; 16 Die

A ferry boat carrying workers home from a night shift split in two and sank after it was rammed by a barge, and at least 16 people drowned, officials reported Friday. A Red Cross source put the toll at about 38.

Jose Nava Ramos of the Minatitlan newspaper La Opinion said reporters had confirmed 27 died and said 16 people were rescued from the rain-swollen Coatzacoalcos River in the eastern state of Vera Cruz.

Raoul Torres, spokesman for the Vera Cruz state governor’s office in Jalapa, said the collision occurred late Thursday night as the workers returned from a sulfur mine.

Pedro Leetch Valcaza, operations director at the Azufrera Panamerica sulfur facility in Jaltipan, about 300 miles east of Mexico City, said the cause of the accident had yet to be determined. But he said possible causes include “strong currents fed by the rains that made it difficult to navigate in the river” and poor night visibility.

A Red Cross worker in Minatitlan, 12 miles east and upriver from the mine, said “about” 38people drowned in the accident. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Torres said that the vessel Liberty was carrying 41 workers when it was struck by the barge at 11:45 p.m. Thursday. The Liberty split in half and sank, taking some workers with it to the river bottom, Torres said. Others jumped into the water as the vessel sank, he said.

“Personnel on the barge tried to rescue those they could,” he said.

Witnesses said river conditions were dangerous when the accident occurred, Nava Ramos reported. He said workers had previously protested what they called the poor operating condition of company vessels used to ferry employees.