Carnival Pride Cruise Ship Crashes While Docking, No Injuries Reported

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A cruise ship crashed while docking in Baltimore. The Carnival Pride hit the passenger gangway pulling into the Maryland cruise terminal Sunday morning.

Tracey Leong has an update to the damage.

The front of the ship struck the bridge used by passengers. Fortunately, no one was using it at the time and there were no injuries caused by the accident.

Carnival Pride passengers returning from a trip to the Bahamas were greeted with a jolt as their ship docked at Baltimore's port.

"Heard it like a crash and felt it and then heard something crashing from outside as well," said passenger Debbie Squires.

The front of the ship struck the passenger walkway at the Maryland cruise terminal, causing it to collapse on top of three parked cars owned by cruise employees. The cars and walkway were empty at the time of the crash and no one was hurt.

The ship suffered only minor damage and the schedule will not be impacted because of this accident.

"It was not, again, a situation where they feel the operation of their ship is compromised at all," said Port of Baltimore spokesman Richard Scher.

It's unclear what caused the ship to hit the bridge. The accident is being investigated jointly by the US Coast Guard and the Carnival Pride.

"We're eager as much as Carnival and the Coast Guard to find out exactly what happened and to make sure this doesn't happen again," Scher said.

Passengers were allowed to disembark using another exit on the pier level, telling WJZ Carnival Pride did everything possible to make them feel comfortable.

"They were very kind and they had a plan B and it all worked out very good," Squires said.

Carnival Pride's next voyage still sailed out as scheduled Sunday evening and used an alternate bridge.

Carnival Cruise is one of two ships with a home port in Baltimore.

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