Cargo Ship Driver Responsible for Crashing Into a Man's Yard Fell Asleep at the Wheel, Police Say

Police successful Norway opportunity a unit personnel falling dormant while connected work led to a monolithic cargo vessel hardly missing a retiree’s home. 

Prosecutor Kjetil Bruland Sørensen said nan worker aboard nan NCL Salten was charged pinch negligent navigation, nan Associated Press reported connected Monday, May 26. 

The person’s sanction was not made public, but he was identified arsenic nan ship’s 2nd officer.

"Five meters further southbound and it would person entered nan bedroom," homeowner Johan Helberg told nan Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation past week, per nan BBC.

Helberg had been sleeping erstwhile nan astir 440-foot-long alloy collided into his backyard astatine astir 5:00 a.m. section clip Thursday, May 22, successful Byneset, adjacent Trondheim.

He slept done nan first crash, but was soon alerted by his neighbour Jostein Jorgensen, who witnessed nan rarity successful real-time.

“I was sleeping soundly, deeply, and past I heard a dinging sound, which I wondered mightiness beryllium my doorbell,” Helberg told nan New York Times connected Thursday night. “I thought, who successful nan world rings nan doorbell astatine 5:45 successful nan morning? I looked retired nan window, and he said: ‘Haven’t you seen nan ship?’ ”

He called nan incident “completely surreal,” noting really adjacent nan vessel came to crashing into his home.

Jorgensen told nan Times he had been “in daze each day." He besides told Norway's TV2 he struggled to aftermath up Helberg.

"I was judge that he was already outside, but no, location was nary motion of life. I rang nan doorbell galore times and nothing," he said, per nan BBC. "And it was only erstwhile I called him connected nan telephone that I managed to interaction him.”

In a statement, Sørensen said nan NCL Salten’s navigator testified that he “fell dormant anterior to nan incident,” per nan Times.

“It does happen, but it’s not thing that should happen,” nan charismatic said. “We person regulations that are expected to create barriers and forestall ships from moving aground because personification falls asleep.”

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“The imaginable for superior harm was immense — some for those onboard, group connected land, and of people regarding biology consequences and worldly damages,” he added.

NCL and a salvage institution tried to usage a tug vessel to region nan vessel from Helberg’s property, but their efforts were unsuccessful arsenic of Thursday evening, per nan Times.

No injuries were reported. At slightest 16 different unit members were believed to beryllium connected committee astatine nan clip of nan incident, which remains nether investigation.

The Norwegian Police did not instantly respond to PEOPLE’s petition for comment. A spokesperson for nan Norwegian Cruise Line told PEOPLE, “The cargo vessel is [in] nary measurement affiliated with" nan company.