Barge Voluntas Loses Wheelhouse After Striking Bridge in Belgium

The double-hulled tanker barge Voluntas struck the Centrumbrug bridge over the Roeselare–Leie canal in the Belgian town of Izegem on the morning of Saturday, November 7, 2026. The impact completely tore off the vessel's wheelhouse and injured the captain, who had jumped from the wheelhouse moments before the collision.

The barge had just discharged a cargo of fuel oil at the port of Roeselare and had resumed its transit along the canal when the collision occurred. According to sources, having discharged its cargo, the vessel's air draft increased, leaving the wheelhouse too high to pass under the bridge. The impact also dislodged a car being carried on the upper deck. The captain was taken by ambulance to a hospital, while the rest of the crew was unharmed.

After the impact, another crew member managed to maneuver the Voluntas astern to move it away from the bridge under its own power. A second cargo vessel then assisted by pushing the barge toward the canal bank, where it was moored at the Zuidkaai quay. Geert Weymeis, of the inland waterway authority De Vlaamse Waterweg, confirmed to local broadcaster Focus-WTV that the bridge suffered no structural damage and that it was not necessary to close it to traffic.

This is not the first time the Centrumbrug has been the scene of this type of accident: in February 2023, the cargo barge Remacum lost its wheelhouse in a similar incident at the same bridge after departing Roeselare following a clay discharge. According to Baird Maritime, the bridge, nearly 500 meters long, had reopened in June 2024 after more than a year of renovation work, and De Vlaamse Waterweg plans to replace it by 2030 due to its limited remaining service life and insufficient clearance for newer-generation vessels.