Two Cruise Ships Collide at Port – What Could be More Ridiculous?

In the news today is a story about two cruise ships colliding off the coast of Mexico. Apparently, one Carnival Cruise ship was coming into port and - somehow - collided with another Carnival ship that was already docked.

Here's the mind boggling thing... cruise ships are HUGE. If you've ever seen one in-person, you know they are much bigger than they look in pictures. Most of them are over 1,000 feet long. That's over 3 football fields. And they are not exactly speedboats. It blows my mind that two of these beasts somehow collided (at turtle speed) in port. It had to be an accident in SUPER slow motion.

That got me thinking about the odds of ridiculous things hitting each other, and the only things I could think of that would be dumber than two cruise ships colliding were:

1. Combines

Two combines colliding would be almost comparable to two cruise ships hitting each other.  Combines are slow, they operate in massive areas of land with clear visibility, no obstacles and plenty of room to get out the way.

2. Trains

Sure, lots of cars, trucks, busses, etc. have been hit by trains, but actual train-on-train wrecks are pretty rare. Because they have systems and protocols to prevent two trains from going head to head on the same track. I image train traffic rules are at least somewhat similar to the technology and protocols of the shipping world. Those maritime rules were apparently completely ignored when the two cruise ships collided. At port. While going slow. On a calm sea. In the daytime.

3. Hot Air Balloons

Perhaps the most ridiculous thing I could think of colliding (besides two massive cruise ships) would be a hot air balloon collision. Again... big things... moving slowly... with TONS of space around them.

I'm sure there will be an investigation as to why the ships collided and I'm sure at least one person will lose their job. Just be glad it wasn't you that was responsible for somehow ramming a giant, slow moving object into another giant, parked object.