Rochester Ferry Incident

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 9:37pm — Diane Dyer

An incident at the Rochester Ferry last week ended with some heavy equipment in the water, and minor damage to the ferry.

According to sources, a pickup truck pulling a piece of heavy equipment was pulling into the ferry. The driver of the truck apparently felt the triller drag as he pulled it onto the ferry barge, and hit his brakes. The momentum of the heavy load going onto the ferry barge pushed it away from the landing, which in turn caused a link in the ferry's mooring chain to fail.

When the chain broke the entire ferry was pushed into the river channel, which in turn dragged the load on the trailer I to the river. The ferry was shut down for a time while C&L Wrecker and the County Road Department extricated the trailer and load from the water.

No injuries were reported and the extent of damage to the load is unknown. Damage to the ferry was limited to the broken mooring chain, which has since been repaired.