A mainland registered vessel hit the safety barriers of the Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge yesterday afternoon which caused a 15-minute traffic suspension on the bridge and the halting of  sailing in waterway heading toward the Inner Harbour.
No casualty was resulted in the accident and the Port Authority said in a press release yesterday although the bridge was protected by the crash barriers, they were "seriously damaged" and needed "immediate restoration" after the incident.
At about 2.30pm, the Foshan-Jiangyin bound cargo ship "Qiang Yu 12" carrying steel crashed into  the protective barriers of the bridge when sailing towards Hung Van in Zhuhai.
The vessel measured 73 metres long with a total load of 1,459 tonnes.
All the 10 male sailors in the ship did not suffer any injuries.
As part of the vessel blocked the waterway, sailing was restriced for almost one and a half hours before the Port Authority and Customs towed the vessel to a wharf.
For safety reasons, the bridge was also closed to traffic for 15 minutes until it was declared safe.
Notices were sent to all inbound and outbound vessels by the Port Authority after the accident.
The public works department attempted to temporarily repair the crash barriers in order to assure the bridge's safety.
Since the establishment of the SAR, the Port Authority said it has been working with the public works departments to continuously improve the design of the bridge so that the crash barriers can protect the structure in case of an accident.