ABSTRACT
The following symbols are used in this chapter. The section number in parentheses after definition of a symbol refers to the section or figure number where the symbol first appears or is identified.
Michael Knott
Zolan Prucz
It was only after a marked increase in the frequency and severity of vessel collisions with bridges that studies of the vessel collision problem have been initiated in recent years. In the period from 1960 to 1998, there have been 30 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, with a total loss of life of 321 people. The greatest loss of life occurred in 1983 when a passenger ship collided with a railroad bridge on the Volga River, Russia; 176 were killed when the aberrant vessel attempted to transit through a side span of the massive bridge. Most of the deaths occurred when a packed movie theater on the top deck of the passenger ship was sheared off by the low vertical clearance of the bridge superstructure.
