Key bridge in Baltimore collapses after cargo ship crashes into it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Incredibly sad—there was a construction crew working on the bridge when it was hit, six workers are missing.

I'm guessing the two people rescued were workers (one had no injuries). Those in their cars would not have enough time to react, let alone absorb a huge impact. They likely perished while still buckled in. Hopefully they were not conscious and therefore, unable to realize what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding cruise ships- I imagine they'll be anchored and tender into the harbor. While I think that would be a nuisance, I don't think it's going to stop cruise ships. Supplying them (food, garbage) will be hard, but there are other stops at other ports that this could potentially happen.

Container ships on the other hand need all the infrastructure of a harbor with cranes. They'll have to be rerouted elsewhere.

Tender thousands of passengers and their luggage to shore??

I was on a cruise boat years ago that started leaking oil. They considered flying those of us continuing on the boat back home.

So what happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me guess. This is probably all the result of poor maintenance of the ship to save a few $ to minorly boost profit. The ship has an electrical failure and loses a control as a result, causing this fiasco.

It was probably consultants who prescribed reduced maintenance of the ship to save on costs that resulted in this. It's entirely their MO like the train crash disaster in Ohio where they proposed to cut staff and maintenance to the bone.

Given how little we know at this point, your post is like taking an x-ray into your brain. All of your biases and world view are exposed. Just so you know…

Dp- maybe, but I wouldn’t bet against their theory. How many times in the past decade do we need to see that deregulated private industry will be the death of us?

I don't think the Port Authority is a private industry.

What? The Port Authority doesn't maintain the ship.

It allowed the ship to leave the dock. It provided the pilot. So the Port Authority has no ability to regulate the port is what you are telling me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live on the ESMD on the Bay and according to my navy and coast guard friends out here: the boat was experiencing repeated power failures from the short time it was released from the tugs after it left the port. Without power the navigation system won’t work and you cannot steer it and hence the boat will drift. The crew then tried to force the throttle to get it back on course and avoid a collision which is why there is thick black smoke seen coming from the boat before it gets to the bridge. The boat did contact MTA/the bridge which has its headquarters at the north end of the bridge in Dundalk to indicate they believed it would collide with the bridge but there wasn’t enough time IRT to then close the bridge to traffic before it was struck.

The ship was FULL of thousands (yes, thousands) of containers. The weight is incredible. You cannot do sharp turns or sudden stops on this. It also is so heavy it would do this to almost any bridge if collided.

Every single container ship that sails on the Bay, anywhere from Virginia Beach to Baltimore, must have a local bay captain on board while it’s on the bay to navigate the ship. There was one on this ship as well.

Ships are being re-routed to the port of Philadelphia.

Why the heck would the tugs release the ship knowing that it was having electrical issues and a huge bridge to imminently navigate?! And why isn’t that bridge considered to be within the harbor?!

I've been corresponding with my dad who is retired from the shipping industry. He said the tugs for unberthing had left before the ship started losing power. And then there was no time for them to come back.

Why wouldn't the tugs routinely stay with a ship until it had cleared the bridge and any other significant obstacles in the harbor?

Tugs assist to unberth the ship and get her into the channel. After that, she has a local chesapeake pilot on board to guide her. She was in the channel when she lost power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read that one person was pulled from the water with zero injuries and another was pulled and went to a trauma care center. I'm still hoping there's more like the first. The water was 48 degrees, so not freezing luckily.

Probably fell into the water at an on- or off-ramp to the bridge. So they didn't fall a great distance and the water is quite shallow next to the river's edge. Their car likely was not fully submerged if they were still sitting on the roadway in the water.

If you look at how much of the bridge still remains it seems like if a vehicle went off the bridge it would only be at the highest point. The lower parts are still standing.

[Anonymous]

BBC on NPR stated that the ship left port and then did a U turn back to port and then went black 3 minutes prior and then had lights flickering and thats when it hit the bridge. Container ship crew stated they lost propulsion.

- I was driving while they were reporting and this is what I heard***

[Anonymous]

Do they know how many cars were crossing the bridge when it collapsed?
It seem they know how many workers were on the bridge (7).

[Anonymous]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68667813

this video from bbc does NOT show a u-turn

[Anonymous]

From the Washington Post - sounds like the ship was able to let authorities know in time to stop cars from driving over the bridge. You can see on the video that a previous poster linked that there were several cars/trucks going by a few minutes before the collapse, but nothing visible immediately preceding the collapse.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the Dali lost power and issued an emergency call for help shortly before the freighter crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse.

The “mayday” distress call allowed officials to halt vehicle traffic headed over the bridge, Moore (D) said.

“By being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes. They saved lives,” he said.

It was not immediately clear how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Search and rescue efforts continue.

[Anonymous]

I would swim away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would swim away

Huh?

I did the Bay Bridge swim but started on the beach. Half way through I turned on my back and looked up at the bridge - boy, was it high. Hitting the water from that height would be like hitting concrete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the tunnel privately owned? I would imagine the fed govt would cover the lost income from tolls in order to keep all the additional traffic flowing as quickly as possible.

Are you suggesting they remove the tolls from the tunnel? I haven't seen anything about plans to do that but it's an interesting idea.
This will also probably make Bay Bridge traffic even worse on summer weekends - people heading up to NJ/

NY may divert to the bay bridge instead.

NP here. They cannot remove tolls from tunnels as those tolls are pledged for debt repayment for MTA bonds (quick reminder on how public finance bond work, looking at you Potomac Yard arena fans).

Tolls were PAUSED during quarantine on places like Bay bridge, but were still back billed and collected later. They won’t be removed. Key Bridge ones are obviously n/a now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would swim away

Huh?

I did the Bay Bridge swim but started on the beach. Half way through I turned on my back and looked up at the bridge - boy, was it high. Hitting the water from that height would be like hitting concrete.

+1 My dad and I talked about this when we did the Bay Bridge walk. From the high parts it’s the fall that might kill you even before you hit the water which can definitely kill you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68667813

this video from bbc does NOT show a u-turn

The video I watched showed it hitting the bridge head on. It tried to go backwards to stop, but I don't see that it turned.

[Anonymous]

There will be massive supply side shocks to the US economy from the this.

“The worst thing that can happen for the Fed, the worst thing that can happen for the economy, are these kinds of supply side shocks because what they do is they reduce the productive capacity of the US economy boost inflation at the same time.”

A shipping analyst warns that the bridge collapse threatens to hamper already-strained global trade flows. “Freight services have already been impacted by drought in the Panama Canal & recent conflict in the Red Sea...This latest incident will add to those concerns.”