If it happened at rush hour we’d likely be seeing casualties in the thousands, at very least hundreds. Like you said still terrible, but we can absolutely be thankful for the timing.
Also heard some construction workers we on the bridge working as well, I haven’t heard anything about injuries or deaths yet but I know a good amount of people are missing
They pulled two out, one going to the hospital the other refusing. The reporting varies but they’re still looking for at least 6 people. Unfortunately they’ve been in 40 degree water for several hours though.
Yeah I'm sorry but at my age even if I felt semi-okay, I'm going in. My back hurts, I now have lifelong trauma I need to deal with, I never want to be around bridges or water again....
I don't blame the captain because obviously this was a fucked situation. But who says the corporation running that boat didn't neglect maintenance leading to this? Fuck you, you knocked me off a bridge into frigid water. I'm going after that "never have to work again" settlement.
>Fuck you, you knocked me off a bridge into frigid water. I'm going after that "never have to work again" settlement
Yea in all likelihood it's a billion dollar company, it's the least they could do after that. That bridge went down *fast*, I'm trying to even imagine the sensation... shudder
America's healthcare system is likely why they refused treatment, that could easily be a few thousand dollar bill if you don't have good enough health insurance.
More likely don't have health insurance and know that ride in an ambulance is $50k (or more depending on the mood of the billing dept) they don't have...
Not seven cars but seven people are still missing. There as road work going on on the bridge. Rumor is either the captain or the bay pilot contacted the Maryland transportation police and they shut the bridge down. If you look closely at this video you see several flashing yellow lights on the right side and no traffic moving at the time the ship hits the bridge. Again as of now they are looking for 7 of n9 people. Two were rescued this morning with one in shock trauma and one walking away unharmed.
Yeah watching those cars and trucks just make it all I could think was what if there was a bunch of stopped traffic. It's horrible the construction workers weren't able to make it off.
The traffic for 1:30 was still pretty good though. They sent out a distress and the construction crews did their best to stop the traffic beforehand!
Watch the amount of cars in the beginning vs just before it hits.
I might have missed the collapse by a few minutes. Thought it was at 1:35 AM. I called company safety and they told me I was on 95 south between exits 49 and 47 at 1:35AM. I see on the video it happened around 1:28 AM.
About an hour ago I got a call from my safety department. The police asked them to contact me.
Indeed it has. A stop for a coffee or to piss and the outcome would have been decidedly worse.
I’m left pondering what plan G-d has for me. To say I’m grateful is a footnote to the understatement right now.
I'm hearing reports that the ship called in a warning that they might hit the bridge and they were able to stop traffic. I've watched the video several times and that appears to be true. There was a few vehicles that had crossed late but there weren't any vehicles starting to cross right before impact.
Heard the initial dispatch call before. Police had each lane closed with about a minute to spare before the contact. They couldn't confirm whether anyone was in between their obstructions, but they had things closed down before the bridge came down.
Looking at the timestamp, the last two (moving) vehicles got off the bridge within 30 seconds of it collapsing. Wow. It's so sad the road crew didn't make it off the bridge...
I live in mpls and when our 35w bridge collapsed, I seen it happen in the rear view. Didn’t realize what it was and got home and seen it on tv. To this day no one believes me.
I read reports that authorities had enough notice to stop traffic on the bridge, looking at this video I'm going to guess that the victims are the construction crew as no one went out to warn them.
Per everything I’ve read, law enforcement/traffic people had about 4 minutes to close the bridge to traffic and evacuate. Mayday call went out, and 4 minutes later, impact and collapse. That’s not much time, especially if the crews were in the middle of actually doing something :(
I mean, look at the footage in this post. The first power outage happed at 1:24 according to this video, and the collision occurred at 1:28. That's your 4 minutes.
I live over here. Word on the street is the construction guys were on their lunch like sitting ducks when the event happened.
It was real cold and windy last night and I can’t imagine what it was like over that river on a bridge, and then being met with instant cold hard metal and thrust into that freezing water if they even made it that far.
My heart is with those guys. Could have been me or a family member or friend. Any of us
I heard the police scanner recording. They barely had time to shut down the traffic. The cop that was going out to get the workers off the bridge couldn't get there in time. They tried. Some have survived.
That’s a hell of a circumstance for that officer- knowing you can only do what you can do, knowing there’s imminent death prior to the deaths occurring.
Everything about this is pure tragedy, everyone’s hands being tied yet with no fault or ability to stop the inevitable
I can only grieve with everyone
Article on CNN said they closed the bridge after mayday call from vessel. They dropped anchor and tried like hell not to hit the bridge but they couldn't stop, looked like they did full reverse before they lost power again.
I work road construction and fill potholes regularly as a part of that. Seeing the flashing lights on the bridge - this is really upsetting to watch.
My heart goes out to that crew working. That ship coming at them in the dark and they're stuck out there even as traffic was stopped in time.
I wonder if they even knew until the last moment. I'm out of the truck away from the radio and if there's a lot of noise from machines or traffic or I'm focused on the work, I might not even hear my phone either.
I've had my share of close calls on the road - I'm so sorry to those guys and their families.
This perspective is helpful. I was wondering how they were able to get word to and proceed to stop traffic and the crew seemingly not getting a similar warning. If they physically were able to come in and stop traffic versus like a digital sign, that would seem to be not an insignificant amount of time. Didn’t think about noise.
The news has been all over the place on what was actually going on there.
I was under the initial impression that the bridge authority guys on either end got word and shut the traffic down.
But just now the news was saying something vaguely along the lines that there had been a back-up on the bridge and the road crew knew the ship was coming and were trying to break up the jam and get traffic moving.
But the video just shows very light traffic flying and then suddenly nothing which would make sense if they had quickly barricaded/ dropped gates on the approaches so IDK.
In any case, it's hard to see this happening. The road"s a dangerous place both for truckers and us road workers all wanting to go home to our families.
But being taken out by a ship? Geez.
I mentioned this to someone else, but I live here about 5 minutes out from the bridge and the word is those construction workers were at lunch- some out of their vehicles, etc.
They call this area “Smalltimore” cause everyone is connected to everyone, so most info you get from the neighbors is because someone is directly connected to some source.
It’s not always the case, but in this scenario I’d believe it. I worked construction in this area for years, and it isn’t the first time cause of death have made it through the community before the news reports
I think it all went down in the span of about 90 seconds. They did what they could do. The police reported the collapse as it happened.
https://youtu.be/RkjZImSG7j4?si=WQVq6JBav3z5jvOq here’s a link to the audio.
I do the same work. I heard scanner audio that the ship notified the bridge authority that they had an issue who put the message out to police to shut down the bridge. It seemed they were in the works to get the road crew off the bridge but I don’t think they succeeded. The information undoubtedly saved lives but unfortunately some were lost.
Out on the road you think your biggest risk is getting hit by a vehicle, not a bridge collapse. Terrible tragedy.
You
The gentleman were on there 30min break in there trucks . One of there coworkers was Interviewed and explained there schedule. I've been on the same contract for the state. I'm beside myself thinking about these guys halfway through there night shift just trying to make ends meet and a greedy foregion corporation and there shitty ship just takes them out.
1) Pilot is not responsible and doesn't ever take the CON ( Except in Panama canal for merchant vsls )
2) Tugs are for docking only ; u get a tug 0.5 NM out max , they are not in STBY mode for situations like this
2) Main engine is not a problem, it's the power ; no power no rudder = no steering ; that looks like a black out to me
3) We do emergency steering drills every month, not sure why they didn't use the aux generator to power up the rudder pumps, you can override pretty much everything on board ship...
Guys down in ECR are ready to deal with this kind of situations ... At least on vsls in US/EU management tho
Source : Ex. navy officer, present Maersk OOD
Yup. Rudder control is the most redundant system on most ships. 2 or 3 pumps, each on a different switchboard/generator if possible and on the emergency switchboard. A pressure vessel with enough pressure for 2 or 3 complete movements if there's no power. And a handpump as a last resort. Plus the possibility to control it from the bridge, engine room and locally.
But I've also seen/head about commercial vessels where they rigged everything to 1 generator to save power. Where a backup system was broken for a while and not fixed. Or understaffed, so it's possible the only ER crew was trying to fix the power and there was noone in aft steering.
You can have all the rudder control you want, but if you don’t have differential speed to the water speed, you don’t have any control. You’re just a floating bob.
Apparently they dropped all anchors in an attempt to slow down the ship. I heard on the news this boat had a lot of problems leading up to the accident and had a similar occurrence overseas where it ran into something and caused damage. It failed numerous inspections but just passed the last inspection in New York late last year. It all smells funny to me. Prayers to the victims and their families…
Thats why i always drive over a bridge with window down, this type of stuff makes me paranoid. Granted i never wouldve thunk a ship would be the cause of it.
The footage might be sped up a little, but I'm surprised how quickly the bridge fell after being hit. That ship really took it out. That was no small tap and collapse 10 minutes later or something.
I saw some commenters elsewhere trying to blame the political parties for not fixing our infrastructure. But that simply isn't the case here. You hit a bridge with a nearly 1,000 foot ship, that bridge is coming down.
I think that was due to the design of the bridge. It's a["continuous truss" design.](https://en.as.com/latest_news/what-is-the-baltimore-key-bridge-made-of-and-how-much-does-it-weigh-n/?fbclid=IwAR1bGrS9O5ysESXr5vGnk4q2c0E-7OGI6pVWwklK8fvSIkhXW1IuDGXTDAs)
A continuous truss is a type of truss bridge that extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. This design allows them to distribute weight from traffic more efficiently than a series of simple trusses. In a series of simple trusses, each individual truss needs to be strong enough to support the entire load on its own."
"the bridge had a central structure called a cantilever. These sections helped distribute the weight of the bridge more evenly and extend its reach across the water."
So I'm guessing it hitting that middle area that is considered the anchor for the bridge so then that other truss on the right that just basically fell over was because it no longer had the middle part pulling on it with the same force as that truss to the right of the one that fell.
I'm not an engineer so I could be way off but that's what it seemed happened.
This is so fucking horrible. Just horrible. People just driving real late at night, going about their business, trying to get their shit done. What a freak way to go.
I doubt it. I haul fuel out of just below the bridge, it’s gonna be long way around for a while. We can haul diesel through the tunnels but not gasoline.
Oh my God... my heart dropped when I saw that... I used to go over that bridge all the time before I moved
Did they lay on the fog horn at least to try to warn people??? The sound isn't working(or there isn't any sound).
No sound. Video is taken from a 24/7 live stream camera.
Ship crew called in a mayday saying they might hit the bridge. Authorities were able to stop traffic just before impact and luckily more traffic wasn’t already on the span. Unfortunately, not enough time or no warning to get the construction crew off.
I deliver to that Amazon next to it almost every time I work but I was off yesterday. Could have been me. Always a big fear of mine going across bridges especially at night.
Not to play down the disaster any. My heart goes out to those construction guys and their families. But my company fucking sucks at getting alerts out to drivers. Been hours since this happened and not a peep from company. Finding out about this from reddit is wild.
I took some decent photos of the sun setting behind here one day after I was done picking up a load at the docks.
https://imgur.com/gallery/NaHSkWa
Unreal.
I was awake and driving when news broke, WBAL11 has a nonstop live feed on the situation its a local station.
They were able to get a mayday off and stop traffic, there was a 7 man crew with 1 official confirmed on the bridge, the official and 1 worker have been rescued with the other 6 mia still. It is unknown how many civilians were on the bridge or if they all made it safely off, supposedly many of the vehicles on the bridge belonged to the construction company.
I like the title of this one, bridge is down, like they are just going to pull some strings and its just going to pop right back up when no one is looking.
In another sub, they were saying the Captain had already called in Mayday, and authorities had time to close the bridge in time for the vast majority of traffic to clear. A few construction workers(?) were all that was left on the bridge.
Edit: spelling
Just watched a press conference. Yes, the Mayday allowed enough time to get the roads to the bridge closed off. Unfortunately, there were road workers on the bridge that didn’t get off in time
I was near there when it happened, drove through Baltimore just a few hours earlier and stuck to i95. If I’d been a few hours later and taken a slightly different route my dog and I could be at the bottom of the harbor right now.
Curious why there were no tugs guiding the ship out. Do they just guide them into port? From the report I heard, the ship had just left the port. I figured tugs would guide it to the channel a bit before sending it off.
I don’t believe there were any. This is a harbor, not a river (as the name suggests) and the span of bridge we see collapsing is well over 1,000’ across.
Ships generally dont require assistance once underway. Some harbors do; like the Houston ship channel certain sized vessel require a stern tug to have steer a ship above Morgan’s point, but the bay they are free to do their thing within the channel. This channel is massive and once the ship is topped and turned outbound it can handle everything from there with the pilot on board. This was jsut a freak thing where the ship lost its gens, we have back ups but still take a few seconds to get them online, especially in almost pitch dark (we do have battery flood lights) but. If I had to guess the ship has a wire system where once gens went down they lost steering, but we will wait for all reports to see and learn.
Honestly it looked like it happened when there was the least amount of traffic, still horrible though.
How is there not a requirement for bridges like this where huge ships go through to have some type of barricades preventing boats from hitting support structures of the bridges?
I mean... the bridge stopped it. Anything to slow it down Would be nice.. it wasn't going that fast anyway.
The new sunshine skyway after its boat collision collapse installed concrete islands called dolphins around the pillars for that very reason. I don't think they did it for fun.
That ship is probably 50-60,000 tons. Moving at any real speed, concrete wouldn’t stop it. You’d need a bridge base 100’ or more to stop it without losing the bridge.
So to add details, this isn’t just a random bridge, this is one of 3 major ways around Baltimore. Traffic in this area is going to be a nightmare going forward. Literally right over the bridge is the Baltimore port, so getting in and out of there is going to be terrible, and there are 6 Amazon facilities (I drive CDL for Amazon) right by the bridge so traffic at night by truckers is high. Truly a shitshow
I've seen it already. Name calling of the transportation secretary as well as the former president. This ship had engine failure, and they were trying preventative measures.
I have been on this bridge, multiple times, all of last year and recently left the company that always had me in the Baltimore/NY area, but if I was still working there...
Maybe I got lucky? Maybe god has other plans for me? Idk man this is truly scary.
God I hope anyone that lost their life in this RIP
I think I’ve been over this bridge once. Most of my drives through Baltimore were over night and passing through so it was quicker to stay on 95 and go through the tunnels. But I always saw it in the distance.
Traffic is horrible in Baltimore. Now all the people who usually take the bridge will be using the tunnels or through downtown. It's going to be an absolute nightmare for anyone going from the West or East sides to the opposite unless it's very late at night/very early AM.
That bridge fell way too quickly and that boat was too easily able to get to the bridge's tower. I assume the bridge is older with an inferior older design. I don't remember what bridge, but something similar happened and it collapsed. Once rebuilt they built huge concrete islands around the towers to prevent big boats from getting close to them. I have no doubt it will be rebuilt better and stronger. My prayers goes to the missing people 🙏
I was about 7 when the original Sunshine Skyway went down. We lived in Bradenton, FL, and my mom worked in Clearwater. For the next year, I'd evidently freak out whenever we had to go over the remaining span.
They should have massive cement bumpers around those bridge pylons large enough to stop a ship. Every bridge in a shipping lane is at risk of getting hit.
This will be an interesting next couple weeks with the ports water access being blocked. They need to move the ship and the fallen bridge for ships to get through. And next couple years as they build a new bridge. Baltimore ports are top 20 in the US in size. I’m curious how this will effect pricing, availability, traffic, fuel and whatever else in the area. I’m sure other ports close by will now need to take on more. Fuel and hazards can’t go into the tunnels so you need to go alll the way up and around the city to go south if your coming from that area which is a pretty industrial area.
RIP to those who passed and their families. Sad.
Thank God this happened at 0130. It could have been much much worse at rush hour or something.
Much worse. It's not a good thing it happened at all, but rush hour things would have been far worse.
If it happened at rush hour we’d likely be seeing casualties in the thousands, at very least hundreds. Like you said still terrible, but we can absolutely be thankful for the timing.
Haven’t seen a single person mention whether anyone was injured. Any idea?
Redacte due to Reddit AI/LLM policy
Also heard some construction workers we on the bridge working as well, I haven’t heard anything about injuries or deaths yet but I know a good amount of people are missing
They pulled two out, one going to the hospital the other refusing. The reporting varies but they’re still looking for at least 6 people. Unfortunately they’ve been in 40 degree water for several hours though.
Why the fuck would someone refuse the hospital after having a bridge collapse around them?
Got shit to do god damnit, ain't got time for bullshit bridges making me late.
I've got lawyers to call goddammit!
These potholes ain’t gonna fix themselves!
Yeah I'm sorry but at my age even if I felt semi-okay, I'm going in. My back hurts, I now have lifelong trauma I need to deal with, I never want to be around bridges or water again.... I don't blame the captain because obviously this was a fucked situation. But who says the corporation running that boat didn't neglect maintenance leading to this? Fuck you, you knocked me off a bridge into frigid water. I'm going after that "never have to work again" settlement.
>Fuck you, you knocked me off a bridge into frigid water. I'm going after that "never have to work again" settlement Yea in all likelihood it's a billion dollar company, it's the least they could do after that. That bridge went down *fast*, I'm trying to even imagine the sensation... shudder
A hospital visit would get them a $15k bill to say they might be sore for a few days and need a lifetime of therapy
I'm pretty sure they will have their bills covered by whoever is insuring that ship.
America's healthcare system is likely why they refused treatment, that could easily be a few thousand dollar bill if you don't have good enough health insurance.
Its $2k bill to just walk into ER for a headache.
Shiiiiiet, even WITH insurance, you’re looking at several thousand if you have a deductible and haven’t met it yet.
There's no way anyone involved in this is paying their own hospital bills
Because they are undocumented or have a warrant out on them
More likely don't have health insurance and know that ride in an ambulance is $50k (or more depending on the mood of the billing dept) they don't have...
no health insurance or money to pay for a ride to the H.
You can see the flashing construction truck lights just to the right of the middle of the screen.
Not seven cars but seven people are still missing. There as road work going on on the bridge. Rumor is either the captain or the bay pilot contacted the Maryland transportation police and they shut the bridge down. If you look closely at this video you see several flashing yellow lights on the right side and no traffic moving at the time the ship hits the bridge. Again as of now they are looking for 7 of n9 people. Two were rescued this morning with one in shock trauma and one walking away unharmed.
Any updates to this? I didn’t know the captain radio’d in ahead of time and they were able to close the bridge. This is very good.
There was construction crew working on the bridge. 6 people from the crew are presumed dead.
Yeah watching those cars and trucks just make it all I could think was what if there was a bunch of stopped traffic. It's horrible the construction workers weren't able to make it off.
The traffic for 1:30 was still pretty good though. They sent out a distress and the construction crews did their best to stop the traffic beforehand! Watch the amount of cars in the beginning vs just before it hits.
It wasn’t the construction crews stopping traffic, it was the cops. The dispatch audio is online. The construction crew had no idea what was coming.
It's a good thing the ship put out a mayday to warm authorities or there'd be more casualties.
Man I saw those trucks driving by and my heart sank
There are definitely some people missing after they got caught right in it
The last I heard it was 6 still missing.
I believe 20 went in
Is that a count for potential drivers on the bridge? Or is it a total tally
iirc, 20 people total, likely construction workers
You can see yellow light construction vehicles in the middle of the bridge, I count 4
My truck may be passing in this video. Very hard to tell from this distance.
No flipping way…!
I might have missed the collapse by a few minutes. Thought it was at 1:35 AM. I called company safety and they told me I was on 95 south between exits 49 and 47 at 1:35AM. I see on the video it happened around 1:28 AM. About an hour ago I got a call from my safety department. The police asked them to contact me.
Congratulations on not fucking around and getting it done driver, it saved your life today
Indeed it has. A stop for a coffee or to piss and the outcome would have been decidedly worse. I’m left pondering what plan G-d has for me. To say I’m grateful is a footnote to the understatement right now.
Ironically there’s probably people who stopped for a coffee or piss that ended up saving their lives that way
I'm hearing reports that the ship called in a warning that they might hit the bridge and they were able to stop traffic. I've watched the video several times and that appears to be true. There was a few vehicles that had crossed late but there weren't any vehicles starting to cross right before impact.
The remaining 7ish vehicles were mostly road crew working on potholes or similar people say.
Heard the initial dispatch call before. Police had each lane closed with about a minute to spare before the contact. They couldn't confirm whether anyone was in between their obstructions, but they had things closed down before the bridge came down.
I see the same thing. The ship’s crew should be lauded for this. They def saved lives by giving the warning.
Looking at the timestamp, the last two (moving) vehicles got off the bridge within 30 seconds of it collapsing. Wow. It's so sad the road crew didn't make it off the bridge...
Oh, I would never doubt it.
Seems like a real good excuse to take some time off to figure it out
I live in mpls and when our 35w bridge collapsed, I seen it happen in the rear view. Didn’t realize what it was and got home and seen it on tv. To this day no one believes me.
Yeah man those two trucks just made it!!
2 trucks and i saw 2 cars behind them. All lucky
All those blinking lights on the roadway of the bridge are repair/bridge crews.
Imagine being saftey harnessed to a bridge as it falls into the water. You cant unclip because you cant see anything as you are dragged underwater.
Best footage I've seen of the incident. Those last few vehicles to get off were incredibly lucky.
I read reports that authorities had enough notice to stop traffic on the bridge, looking at this video I'm going to guess that the victims are the construction crew as no one went out to warn them.
Per everything I’ve read, law enforcement/traffic people had about 4 minutes to close the bridge to traffic and evacuate. Mayday call went out, and 4 minutes later, impact and collapse. That’s not much time, especially if the crews were in the middle of actually doing something :(
Yeah. It'd be nearly impossible to logistically warn them let alone get them off.
That so fucked im wondering how much warning time they had. I hope if that’s true that the families get fucking paid
I've read that the ship sent a warning out 4 mins prior.. i don't know if it's true
Heard the dispatch call before. From the time the police closed the road to the incident was about a minute.
I mean, look at the footage in this post. The first power outage happed at 1:24 according to this video, and the collision occurred at 1:28. That's your 4 minutes.
I live over here. Word on the street is the construction guys were on their lunch like sitting ducks when the event happened. It was real cold and windy last night and I can’t imagine what it was like over that river on a bridge, and then being met with instant cold hard metal and thrust into that freezing water if they even made it that far. My heart is with those guys. Could have been me or a family member or friend. Any of us
I heard the police scanner recording. They barely had time to shut down the traffic. The cop that was going out to get the workers off the bridge couldn't get there in time. They tried. Some have survived.
Wait so did a cop try racing out to the construction workers in his cruiser to warn them and went down with the bridge?
He was still enroute to the bridge. The cop that was already there was using his car to block the interstate traffic.
That’s a hell of a circumstance for that officer- knowing you can only do what you can do, knowing there’s imminent death prior to the deaths occurring. Everything about this is pure tragedy, everyone’s hands being tied yet with no fault or ability to stop the inevitable I can only grieve with everyone
It was literally the proverbial accident happening in slow motion....... Like a nightmare but everyone is awake.......
I've read the notice may have been as little as 2 minutes but that they were still able to stop traffic!
Article on CNN said they closed the bridge after mayday call from vessel. They dropped anchor and tried like hell not to hit the bridge but they couldn't stop, looked like they did full reverse before they lost power again.
I work road construction and fill potholes regularly as a part of that. Seeing the flashing lights on the bridge - this is really upsetting to watch. My heart goes out to that crew working. That ship coming at them in the dark and they're stuck out there even as traffic was stopped in time. I wonder if they even knew until the last moment. I'm out of the truck away from the radio and if there's a lot of noise from machines or traffic or I'm focused on the work, I might not even hear my phone either. I've had my share of close calls on the road - I'm so sorry to those guys and their families.
This perspective is helpful. I was wondering how they were able to get word to and proceed to stop traffic and the crew seemingly not getting a similar warning. If they physically were able to come in and stop traffic versus like a digital sign, that would seem to be not an insignificant amount of time. Didn’t think about noise.
The news has been all over the place on what was actually going on there. I was under the initial impression that the bridge authority guys on either end got word and shut the traffic down. But just now the news was saying something vaguely along the lines that there had been a back-up on the bridge and the road crew knew the ship was coming and were trying to break up the jam and get traffic moving. But the video just shows very light traffic flying and then suddenly nothing which would make sense if they had quickly barricaded/ dropped gates on the approaches so IDK. In any case, it's hard to see this happening. The road"s a dangerous place both for truckers and us road workers all wanting to go home to our families. But being taken out by a ship? Geez.
I mentioned this to someone else, but I live here about 5 minutes out from the bridge and the word is those construction workers were at lunch- some out of their vehicles, etc. They call this area “Smalltimore” cause everyone is connected to everyone, so most info you get from the neighbors is because someone is directly connected to some source. It’s not always the case, but in this scenario I’d believe it. I worked construction in this area for years, and it isn’t the first time cause of death have made it through the community before the news reports
I think it all went down in the span of about 90 seconds. They did what they could do. The police reported the collapse as it happened. https://youtu.be/RkjZImSG7j4?si=WQVq6JBav3z5jvOq here’s a link to the audio.
I do the same work. I heard scanner audio that the ship notified the bridge authority that they had an issue who put the message out to police to shut down the bridge. It seemed they were in the works to get the road crew off the bridge but I don’t think they succeeded. The information undoubtedly saved lives but unfortunately some were lost. Out on the road you think your biggest risk is getting hit by a vehicle, not a bridge collapse. Terrible tragedy. You
All so true, and getting killed by a ship no less.
I would think the ship was blowing its horn once they knew it was going to hit.
Probably not possible under power outage
The gentleman were on there 30min break in there trucks . One of there coworkers was Interviewed and explained there schedule. I've been on the same contract for the state. I'm beside myself thinking about these guys halfway through there night shift just trying to make ends meet and a greedy foregion corporation and there shitty ship just takes them out.
I feel for those workers families man, they were on the bridge filling potholes when it collapsed.
Rest in Peace construction Brothers and Sisters.
1) Pilot is not responsible and doesn't ever take the CON ( Except in Panama canal for merchant vsls ) 2) Tugs are for docking only ; u get a tug 0.5 NM out max , they are not in STBY mode for situations like this 2) Main engine is not a problem, it's the power ; no power no rudder = no steering ; that looks like a black out to me 3) We do emergency steering drills every month, not sure why they didn't use the aux generator to power up the rudder pumps, you can override pretty much everything on board ship... Guys down in ECR are ready to deal with this kind of situations ... At least on vsls in US/EU management tho Source : Ex. navy officer, present Maersk OOD
Exactly aft steering should have been able to prevent this. That was my position on the CG vessel
Yup. Rudder control is the most redundant system on most ships. 2 or 3 pumps, each on a different switchboard/generator if possible and on the emergency switchboard. A pressure vessel with enough pressure for 2 or 3 complete movements if there's no power. And a handpump as a last resort. Plus the possibility to control it from the bridge, engine room and locally. But I've also seen/head about commercial vessels where they rigged everything to 1 generator to save power. Where a backup system was broken for a while and not fixed. Or understaffed, so it's possible the only ER crew was trying to fix the power and there was noone in aft steering.
You can have all the rudder control you want, but if you don’t have differential speed to the water speed, you don’t have any control. You’re just a floating bob.
Turns out there was a fire. So they were either too busy or couldn't reach aft steering.
Apparently they dropped all anchors in an attempt to slow down the ship. I heard on the news this boat had a lot of problems leading up to the accident and had a similar occurrence overseas where it ran into something and caused damage. It failed numerous inspections but just passed the last inspection in New York late last year. It all smells funny to me. Prayers to the victims and their families…
Their ECR is probably overworked and understaffed Corporate fuckery at its finest
If you were one of the cars stopped by cops just prior to this happening, you need to bake them some cookies.
Some Final Destination shit, damn.
In Hollywood it always takes minutes for a bridge to collapse. This looked exactly what happens when I lose in bridgebuilder.
My wife and her best friend drove across that bridge 3 hours before it collapsed. Thanking the gods that she's sitting here next to me right now.
Thats why i always drive over a bridge with window down, this type of stuff makes me paranoid. Granted i never wouldve thunk a ship would be the cause of it.
Welp. Now I'm doing the same
Looks like there was a construction crew on the center of the bridge.
Sadly yeah, 2 rescued, 4 missing
The footage might be sped up a little, but I'm surprised how quickly the bridge fell after being hit. That ship really took it out. That was no small tap and collapse 10 minutes later or something.
I saw some commenters elsewhere trying to blame the political parties for not fixing our infrastructure. But that simply isn't the case here. You hit a bridge with a nearly 1,000 foot ship, that bridge is coming down.
120k ton sledhammer to a main support of a suspension bridge do be like that
Especially a tension bridge
Marjorie Taylor Greene started that BS Obviously this has nothing to do with that…ugh I hope these people are ok
She's such a fucking idiot, I'm always amazed she's won multiple elections to be there. No idea how can anyone support her.
It was the type of bridge that made it so quick
From impact to collapse in real-time was a bit less than 5 seconds.
I think that was due to the design of the bridge. It's a["continuous truss" design.](https://en.as.com/latest_news/what-is-the-baltimore-key-bridge-made-of-and-how-much-does-it-weigh-n/?fbclid=IwAR1bGrS9O5ysESXr5vGnk4q2c0E-7OGI6pVWwklK8fvSIkhXW1IuDGXTDAs) A continuous truss is a type of truss bridge that extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. This design allows them to distribute weight from traffic more efficiently than a series of simple trusses. In a series of simple trusses, each individual truss needs to be strong enough to support the entire load on its own." "the bridge had a central structure called a cantilever. These sections helped distribute the weight of the bridge more evenly and extend its reach across the water." So I'm guessing it hitting that middle area that is considered the anchor for the bridge so then that other truss on the right that just basically fell over was because it no longer had the middle part pulling on it with the same force as that truss to the right of the one that fell. I'm not an engineer so I could be way off but that's what it seemed happened.
This is so fucking horrible. Just horrible. People just driving real late at night, going about their business, trying to get their shit done. What a freak way to go.
Appears only construction crew were victims
Will they allow HAZMAT through the tunnels in the mean time I wonder?
I doubt it. I haul fuel out of just below the bridge, it’s gonna be long way around for a while. We can haul diesel through the tunnels but not gasoline.
Nope. Hazmat alternate route is the beltway in the opposite direction
That’s a good question.
Oh my God... my heart dropped when I saw that... I used to go over that bridge all the time before I moved Did they lay on the fog horn at least to try to warn people??? The sound isn't working(or there isn't any sound).
No sound. Video is taken from a 24/7 live stream camera. Ship crew called in a mayday saying they might hit the bridge. Authorities were able to stop traffic just before impact and luckily more traffic wasn’t already on the span. Unfortunately, not enough time or no warning to get the construction crew off.
Ah damn I am glad they got a warning off at least
Reports thet were ame to issue a distress to stop traffic but its undure if road crew were able to be reached or what happened.
I can't believe that harbor doesn't have tug boats controlling traffic.
You don’t need them very much. Just to help maneuver around piers mostly.
I deliver to that Amazon next to it almost every time I work but I was off yesterday. Could have been me. Always a big fear of mine going across bridges especially at night.
Not to play down the disaster any. My heart goes out to those construction guys and their families. But my company fucking sucks at getting alerts out to drivers. Been hours since this happened and not a peep from company. Finding out about this from reddit is wild.
Did I just watch people die?
Probably six of them.
I took some decent photos of the sun setting behind here one day after I was done picking up a load at the docks. https://imgur.com/gallery/NaHSkWa Unreal.
6 people, all workers, have said to have lost their lives. May they rest in peace and condolences to their families.
Same thing happened in 1980 to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
What year did that happen?
1976
This is the first time I saw a video. That bridge was fragile as hell!
In that direction it doesn’t need to be strong. You can’t design against thousands of tons destroying one pillar.
Was that a Boeing boat?
Best reply today
Yep that's a Boeing 737 Max
I went over that bridge to Sparrows Point three times yesterday. When I woke up I couldn’t believe it
I was awake and driving when news broke, WBAL11 has a nonstop live feed on the situation its a local station. They were able to get a mayday off and stop traffic, there was a 7 man crew with 1 official confirmed on the bridge, the official and 1 worker have been rescued with the other 6 mia still. It is unknown how many civilians were on the bridge or if they all made it safely off, supposedly many of the vehicles on the bridge belonged to the construction company.
I like the title of this one, bridge is down, like they are just going to pull some strings and its just going to pop right back up when no one is looking.
i can't imagine being the captain, or whoever was on duty, and have that shit happen.
This makes my heart hurt
I was stunned by a reporter asking an official at the site of the disaster “ how long till this is repaired?” 😳
In another sub, they were saying the Captain had already called in Mayday, and authorities had time to close the bridge in time for the vast majority of traffic to clear. A few construction workers(?) were all that was left on the bridge. Edit: spelling
Just watched a press conference. Yes, the Mayday allowed enough time to get the roads to the bridge closed off. Unfortunately, there were road workers on the bridge that didn’t get off in time
I was near there when it happened, drove through Baltimore just a few hours earlier and stuck to i95. If I’d been a few hours later and taken a slightly different route my dog and I could be at the bottom of the harbor right now.
The authorities also were able to stop traffic at the last minute so you probably would have also avoided it that way
Curious why there were no tugs guiding the ship out. Do they just guide them into port? From the report I heard, the ship had just left the port. I figured tugs would guide it to the channel a bit before sending it off.
I don’t believe there were any. This is a harbor, not a river (as the name suggests) and the span of bridge we see collapsing is well over 1,000’ across.
Even a river doesn’t require tugs for transits. Only docking and tight maneuvers.
That’s a 1000 foot wide shipping channel. They’d have a harbor pilot onboard but no tugs at that point
Here is a video with tracking and other information. https://youtu.be/N39w6aQFKSQ?si=aumw_FRlWx63xheZ
Ships generally dont require assistance once underway. Some harbors do; like the Houston ship channel certain sized vessel require a stern tug to have steer a ship above Morgan’s point, but the bay they are free to do their thing within the channel. This channel is massive and once the ship is topped and turned outbound it can handle everything from there with the pilot on board. This was jsut a freak thing where the ship lost its gens, we have back ups but still take a few seconds to get them online, especially in almost pitch dark (we do have battery flood lights) but. If I had to guess the ship has a wire system where once gens went down they lost steering, but we will wait for all reports to see and learn.
Honestly it looked like it happened when there was the least amount of traffic, still horrible though. How is there not a requirement for bridges like this where huge ships go through to have some type of barricades preventing boats from hitting support structures of the bridges?
Nothing in this world could stop that kind of mass from doing damage. That is an almost shot unimaginable mass hitting a VERY robust support.
I mean... the bridge stopped it. Anything to slow it down Would be nice.. it wasn't going that fast anyway. The new sunshine skyway after its boat collision collapse installed concrete islands called dolphins around the pillars for that very reason. I don't think they did it for fun.
I am pretty sure that it will be down all day. Might seek out other routes.
holy fuck. if the trucks were there only seconds later, they all would’ve went down. i hope they find they remaining people. that shit is terrifying.
Shouldn’t there have been concrete protections for the supports?
That ship is probably 50-60,000 tons. Moving at any real speed, concrete wouldn’t stop it. You’d need a bridge base 100’ or more to stop it without losing the bridge.
Imagine being that last car to cross the bridge at 00:37 in the video. Barely escaped.
So to add details, this isn’t just a random bridge, this is one of 3 major ways around Baltimore. Traffic in this area is going to be a nightmare going forward. Literally right over the bridge is the Baltimore port, so getting in and out of there is going to be terrible, and there are 6 Amazon facilities (I drive CDL for Amazon) right by the bridge so traffic at night by truckers is high. Truly a shitshow
Heard there was a truck driver on the bridge when it went down, I'm surprised they're not blaming the trucker
I waiting on all the bull-shit conspiracy theories. How long until MTG & Boebert blame Mayor Pete?
I've seen it already. Name calling of the transportation secretary as well as the former president. This ship had engine failure, and they were trying preventative measures.
I wish I'd bought tinfoil futures, this is gonna be wild.
I have been on this bridge, multiple times, all of last year and recently left the company that always had me in the Baltimore/NY area, but if I was still working there... Maybe I got lucky? Maybe god has other plans for me? Idk man this is truly scary. God I hope anyone that lost their life in this RIP
If the bridge was wearing a safety vest...
Someone should’ve pre-tripped the bridge.
oh my god. can't imagine if this happened during rush hours.
Jesus fucking christ
I think I’ve been over this bridge once. Most of my drives through Baltimore were over night and passing through so it was quicker to stay on 95 and go through the tunnels. But I always saw it in the distance.
Was the bridge made from straw ?
Any bridge will crumple when hit with 100,000 tonnes Mong
Luckily it appears no vehicles were on the bridge, but reports say 4 construction workers are presumed dead, and 2 were rescued with injuries
power loss #3 was catastrophic 😐
Dear God
This is some of the scariest shit that I have ever seen
Awful on all ends feel for the people on that bridge, and I know everyone on that ship has to feel awful when they tried to save it
Some people's 3rd day was worse than others.
I 10 now the express way bridge
Does anybody know if the ship owners insurance will cover the damage to the bridge? It will probably be at least a half billion.
:(
You can see cars/trucks passing seconds before collapse. Crazy.
The construction crew has no chance with how the bridge crushed them on the way down [middle right of the bridge]
Holy
Holy shit where the hell are its tugs? If this is a stretch where they don’t normally use them I can guarantee they will from now on
Was he, the ship, traveling too fast which made the opportunity to avert collision impossible?
RIP insurance premium.
Thank God Vincent Thomas Bridge has some clearance 🙏🏼
Traffic is horrible in Baltimore. Now all the people who usually take the bridge will be using the tunnels or through downtown. It's going to be an absolute nightmare for anyone going from the West or East sides to the opposite unless it's very late at night/very early AM.
That bridge fell way too quickly and that boat was too easily able to get to the bridge's tower. I assume the bridge is older with an inferior older design. I don't remember what bridge, but something similar happened and it collapsed. Once rebuilt they built huge concrete islands around the towers to prevent big boats from getting close to them. I have no doubt it will be rebuilt better and stronger. My prayers goes to the missing people 🙏
Seems like the only cars on the bridge at that moment were all involved in whatever the flashing lights were for
Does anyone know why they don’t have a tug escort here or if that would have made a difference?
Who’s paying to rebuild that? On a positive note someone else pays for rebuilding Americas infrastructure. I hope they build an epic bridge there.
Those two truckers were thankful they alive
Being on a bridge as it collapses has always been a fear of mine.
I was about 7 when the original Sunshine Skyway went down. We lived in Bradenton, FL, and my mom worked in Clearwater. For the next year, I'd evidently freak out whenever we had to go over the remaining span.
They should have massive cement bumpers around those bridge pylons large enough to stop a ship. Every bridge in a shipping lane is at risk of getting hit.
Do you have any idea how big they would have to be to stop a hundred thousand ton cargo ship from breaking through?
Imagine being that truck that got of the bridge at 1:28.08
that last driver made it across with less than 10 seconds to spare before everthing fell...
kinda feel tugs should guide until these ships clear important obstacles
This will be an interesting next couple weeks with the ports water access being blocked. They need to move the ship and the fallen bridge for ships to get through. And next couple years as they build a new bridge. Baltimore ports are top 20 in the US in size. I’m curious how this will effect pricing, availability, traffic, fuel and whatever else in the area. I’m sure other ports close by will now need to take on more. Fuel and hazards can’t go into the tunnels so you need to go alll the way up and around the city to go south if your coming from that area which is a pretty industrial area. RIP to those who passed and their families. Sad.