Tanker Hits Bridge: Empty Oil Tanker 'Overseas Reymar' Crashes In San Francisco Bay Bridge [Photo]

A tanker struck a tower of the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Monday. Fortunately, the oil tanker was empty, therefore no spill was reported into the bay, U.S. Coast Guard and California state officials have said.

The "Overseas Reymar" is a 750-foot-long ship sailing under a Marshall Islands flag leaving in heavy fog  when the starboard hull scraped one of the towers, which supports the bridge.

The incident which is about five miles away from the golden gate bridge reported no injuries and none of the channels or ports were shut down in San Francisco. The hit did not damage the bridge, "This was basically a scrape," said Bart Ney, a California Department of Transportation spokesman. "The fender system performed as was designed. There's no damage to the bridge."

Coast Guard Lt. Commander Shawn Lansing is not sure why the ship scraped the bridge, but says the heavy fog did play a major factor and reduced visibility to a quarter-mile.

After the collision the ship remained anchored in the bay near Alcatraz Island undergoing further inspections.

The ship had been empty on Monday after unloading 350,000 barrels of crude oil at Royal Dutch Shell PLC's refinery in Martinez on Sunday,said Erin Hallissy, a Shell spokeswoman.