this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024

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Baltimore bridge collapses into river after being hit by cargo ship (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

235 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after a large boat collided with it early on Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the water.

At about 1.30am, a vessel crashed into the bridge, catching fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below, according to a video posted on X.

“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.

Matthew West, a petty officer first class for the coastguard in Baltimore, told the New York Times that the coastguard received a report of an impact at 1.27am ET. West said the Dali, a 948ft (29 metres) Singapore-flagged cargo ship, had hit the bridge, which is part of Interstate 695.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I'm just glad it happened in the dead of night and that the ship sent a mayday several minutes before it happened. State Police were apparently able to close the bridge and clear most of the traffic (it's 1.6 miles/ 2.6 kilometers long) off of it before it collapsed. It's sad that there were still construction workers and some cars still left on it, though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Crazy. Even with the mayday I'm amazed they could get police in position fast enough.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maryland has the MTA police (tunnel rats) who are in charge of the toll roads (originally just the tunnels but it's expanded) so I'm sure there there MTA cops lurking about. Thank God they jumped to action.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

According to WP, it was still pretty quick. They had about two or three minutes from loss of power to collision. That had the pilot assess the situation, call a mayday and request the bridge be closed, dispatch to order the cops to act, and them to act. Then it had to take time for the bridge to clear.

One cop said on the radio that as soon as he got the traffic shut off, he was going to go evacuate the bridge workers, which obviously they didn't have time to do, but that was still quick. I would not have expected that to have happened so rapidly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_collapse

Dali left the Port of Baltimore at 12:44 a.m. EDT (04:44 UTC) on March 26, 2024,[24] bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.[25] Two local pilots were piloting the ship.[10] At 1:26 a.m.,[26] the ship suffered a "complete blackout" and began to drift out of the shipping channel (a backup generator did not power the propulsion system).[13] The ship dropped its anchors as part of its emergency procedures.[3] At about 1:26 a.m., a mayday call was made from the ship,[26] notifying the Maryland Department of Transportation that control of the vessel had been lost and that a collision with the bridge was possible, citing loss of propulsion.[1] One of the pilots requested that traffic be stopped from crossing the bridge immediately.[3][27][28][29] The ship's lights went out and came on again some moments later; the lights then went off again and powered back on immediately before impact as renewed smoke spewed from its funnel.[10][30] Following the pilot's request, Maryland Transportation Authority Police dispatch requested officers to stop traffic in both directions at 1:27:53 a.m. Northbound traffic was stopped at the south side after 20 seconds. Southbound traffic was stopped at the north side at 1:28:58 a.m., with less than 30 seconds before collapse.[31]

At 1:28 a.m.,[32] the ship struck a support column of the bridge, beneath its metal truss and at the south-west end of its largest span, at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph).[11] AIS data shows the ship traveling at a speed of 8.7 knots (16.1 km/h; 10.0 mph) at 1:25 a.m. before departing the channel and slowing to 6.8 knots (12.6 km/h; 7.8 mph) by the time of the collision two minutes later.[30][33]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It’s sad that there were still construction workers and some cars still left on it, though.

Hopefully police told the people to evacuate their vehicles

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Unfortunately, it would've simply been faster for them to drive to either end of the bridge. The Maryland Department of Transportation had already closed the bridge. The only traffic left on the bridge was the traffic that got through before the closure, but everything happened so fast I don't think they had time to get off the bridge.

One article I read said that the mayday call, the bridge closure, the collision, and the collapse all happened in the span of about two minutes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm so confused why a mayday wasn't sent out earlier though. Like they had to have known collision was imminent.

And weren't there local authorities on board that were guiding them through the waterway?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago

They lost power, dropped anchor, and called a mayday. By the sound of it the pilot probably did everything perfect. But whatever caused the power loss and engine failure is gonna be looked at very closely.

I think new procedures for having tugs hooked up until ships are entirely clear of port may be on their way - even if they're mostly just escorts unless the ship's engines fail.

There's gonna be a lot of pointing fingers and yelling, but hopefully in the end things will be safer than they are today. From the sound of it we got really lucky on the "lives lost" side of things.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm so confused why a mayday wasn't sent out earlier though. Like they had to have known collision was imminent.

Prolly something like:

"Aww nah, theres no need m8, I'm sure we'll figure something out"

I've heard the same thing with another issue

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/effects/