![]() ![]() What do you see on the tours?Ī website advertising a " Lockport Cave & Underground Boat Ride" describes the experience as a 75-minute historic guided walking tour along the Erie Canal, located a 30-minute drive from Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Lockport Mayor Michelle Roman said tours on the motorboats have operated since the mid-1970s without incident. It was unclear whether they were required or offered. Nobody on board had a life preserver, authorities said. The agency organized the outing as part of a familiarization tour, she said. The tunnel was blasted out in the 19th century to transport extra water from the Erie Canal to power nearby businesses.Īll of the passengers were hospitality employees from across Niagara County, according to Andrea Czopp, chief operating officer at Destination Niagara USA. Others wrapped in white towels were being escorted to a bus as a steady rain fell. Video footage from the scene outside the Lockport Cave office showed one person talking as she was loaded onto an ambulance. Nearby streets were closed to make room for rescue vehicles and crews. "It's a very confined area, and any time a boat is capsized I can imagine there would be some related injuries," Kingston-Brandt said. Seven people were treated at the Eastern Niagara Hospital emergency room, spokesperson Patricia Kingston-Brandt said, adding later that six were discharged and the other one would be released in the evening. ![]() “The water in the caves is super cold,” said Jeremy Swiatowy, 42, who watched as rescue workers breached the wall to the tunnel with a sledgehammer before squeezing through the hole to reach people inside. Quagliano said 16 passengers were rescued by crews with an inflatable boat, while others reached safety on their own. “A number of victims were on top of that boat initially when rescuers got to them.” “The boat did a 180-degree turn, so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water,” Quagliano said. The tours take visitors on an underground boat ride illuminated only by small lights. Officials said his wife was one of 11 people taken to local hospitals, mostly with minor injuries. The name of the man who died was not released. after the flat-bottom tour boat apparently became unbalanced and overturned, killing a man who got trapped underneath, officials said.Īll 29 people on board − 28 passengers and a tour employee − were flung into water 5-6 feet deep toward the end of the ride in a tunnel, Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano said at a news conference. Lockport police and fire departments responded to the scene about 20 miles northeast of Niagara Falls at around 11:30 a.m. The company that operates the tours did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment.One person died and several were hospitalized Monday after a boat capsized during a cave tour in Lockport, New York, authorities said. ![]() During the ride, about two to three feet of space separate the boat and cave walls on either side. The agency organized the outing as part of a familiarization tour, she said.Īuthorities said the specially built motorboat holds up to 40 people, who sit in rows about four across. His wife was taken to a hospital.Ī total of 11 people were brought to hospitals, mostly with minor injuries, the fire chief said.Īll of the passengers were hospitality employees from across Niagara County, according to Andrea Czopp, chief operating officer at Destination Niagara USA. When rescuers reached the boat, some passengers had climbed on top of its upturned hull, Quagliano said at a news conference.Īuthorities did not immediately release the name of the man who died. “The water in the caves is super cold,” he said. Jeremy Swiatowy, 42, watched as rescue workers breached the wall to the tunnel with a sledgehammer before shimmying through the hole to reach people inside. Rescue crews using an inflatable boat rescued about 16 others, Lockport Fire Chief Luca Quagliano said. Some passengers dunked into the water were able to get to safety on their own. 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. A boat carrying hospitality workers capsized Monday during a tour of a historic underground cavern system built to carry water from the Erie Canal beneath the western New York city of Lockport, killing one person who became trapped beneath the overturned vessel, officials said.Īll 29 people on board the flat-bottomed boat operated by Lockport Cave Tours were thrown into water between 5 feet and 6 feet deep when the craft tipped over toward the end of the roughly 300-foot route. ![]()
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