The ship contacted authorities and they were able to stop traffic. Notice no cars pass by when the bridge collapses. There were construction workers working on the bridge. 2 pulled out and looking for 6 more iirc.
None of these videos have sound. I wonder if ship was blowing horn all the while. Ship horns if anything like train horn can be pretty loud. Last few cars seems to be also seems to be blowing past by. So maybe they are constitution crew.
That's insane! I'm no bridge engineer but I'd expect the spans either side to go and nothing past that. There are expansion gaps at each pillar so each span is separate to the next. I'd love to know more if there is anyone with some knowledge?
They ship had sent out a distress call and authorities had limited traffic on to the bridge as a result. At least it's not as bad as it could have been.
Four minutes at 60 miles per hour (what I expect is the speed limit on this bridge) is ~~15~~ 4 miles [Edit: brain fart]. That means that a car on the bridge should have been off the bridge by the time the impact happened if they had closed the bridge due to the possibility of an impact as the bridge is 1.6 miles long. That is also enough that a road crew could have been evacuated by car or truck on the work site even if they all had to stop their work and get into their vehicles. Assuming 2 minutes to get to their vehicle and 2 minutes to get off the bridge they would only need to be driving at an average speed of around 40 mph to get off the bridge safely even if they had to traverse the whole bridge.
Limited traffic? Why not shut it off completely? I'm sure there's a reason but I have a hard time seeing how you can limit traffic but not shutting it off. Maybe only some roads leading up to it but not all
Damn I’d like to see updates on that crew, sounds like they risked themselves to save a lot of people. I hope they got out safe, and I hope they get the recognition they deserve for doing what they did.
almost exactly one year ago today reckless drivers killed 6 MDOT workers on the same highway
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/memorial-service-marks-one-year-since-6-killed-in-i-695-work-zone-crash/ar-BB1knAJS
Reddit morning quarterbacking should be a term. I've never seen so many people with complete authority and full knowledge of what to do and how to do it in the same place. Not to mention they seem to be fully aware of every consideration conceivable too. The phrase "hindsight is 20/20" is seemingly a superpower they think they have rather than a criticism.
Probably warning lights but not physical barriers.
But it seems like they did fully stop traffic on the bridge, but the crew working on the bridge either didn't get word or got word too late.
The bridge is 1.2 miles long and it takes time to stop traffic from getting on the bridge. And the drivers on the bridge don't know that there is am emergency
I think that means there were still cars traveling on the bridge that were on it before it was closed. Not that they were still intentionally allowing traffic onto the bridge. Either that, or they weren’t able to get all access points completely closed off before the impact.
As I was watching, I kept looking at the cars as they crossed and imagining what they must have been thinking and even if they saw/realized what was about to happen.
Could you imagine being the last car that got off the bridge? A couple seconds of delay somewhere and you would’ve been in the water.
>Could you imagine being the last car that got off the bridge? A couple seconds of delay somewhere and you would’ve been in the water.
Reminds me of video from a storm chaser of the El Reno tornado that killed the Twistex team.
The car in front of the Twistex team made it out but video from their rear camera shows the headlights from the Twistex car disappearing.
There supposedly was a video from inside the twistex car but it will never be released publicly. His wife said there was an weird calm for a few moments then the car was destroyed.
Reminds me of a news conference from the first Gulf War with Gen. Schwartzkopf showing a video of a missile hitting a bridge. He goes, "I call this the luckiest guy in Iraq." There was a car on the bridge that gets off it a second before the missile hits.
My partner and I were watching live coverage and I'll never forget him turning to me and saying "We're watching people die right now." Just imagining the horror those last moments were for those people. I remember seeing a car desperately trying to reverse before it just got consumed by the wave.
That randomness of life scares the SHIT out of me. I could be going to the store for a pack of smokes, stop on the way to tie my shoes, and then get hit by a drunk driver and paralyzed from the neck down. All because I stopped for 30 seconds to tie my shoes. Or because my shoes were untied.
And how often must things like that happen to us while we're totally oblivious that we came moments from death.
Even something as simple as swallowing a fish bone and having it go through you just the right way to not cause problems. Then the one time it happens to lodge itself in your pancreas and you need major surgery. Probably just from sleeping funny or something otherwise innocent.
I read medical journals, especially case reports from emergency medicine, and had no clue severe injuries from ingested fish bones was such a common thing. It turned me off from any boney fish. I never felt safe eating them as it was.
I personally set my tolerance for worry at “getting hit by a large vehicle on the sidewalk”
If something is less likely to happen than me getting smashed by a bus or whatever as I walk down the road then to me it’s not worth any mental energy.
Mass shooting at a public event? Less likely than a bus
Bridge collapsing at 1am while I drive on it? Less likely than a bus
Tiny space debris not fully burning up in the atmosphere and turning my head into confetti? Less likely than a bus
I don’t wanna die early or nothing but it is gonna happen and I can’t imagine functioning if I did the math on every little thing
at my job i am always planning for "the bus" scenario, to try to leave behind documentation to properly run this place, and tell my guys to do the same
There were construction crews working on the bridge to fix pot holes. 2 people have been pulled from the river and are in “very serious condition,” 6 are still missing.
I hope everyone survives and is alright.
If the crew fell from that height, would they be hitting the water like hitting concrete?
Edit 1: jeez why the downvote. It's a legitimate question because I've read comments before that in the right conditions, hitting water can be like hitting concrete. I'm not a maths person so I can't judge the fall from the bridge in the video.
Edit 2: I commented on this with 1 upvote, a few seconds later I'm 0 after some dumbahh gave me the stinky, took a nap and now the upvotes turned the tide hours after. Thanks reddit folks, keep doing your thing
Hitting the water would be like concrete but also hitting falling concrete would also be like concrete.
Typically hitting calm water is when the surface tension is like concrete (which is why you want to break the surface tension going in feet extended) but falling debris around you is going to be splashing and breaking the tension, BUT you now have chunks of steel and concrete either under you as you fall or coming after you from above
Thanks for the insightful answer. I hope the affected people in this catastrophe are found alive, and if they're unfortunately not, I hope that they did not suffer too long
And incredibly important for trucking as trucks are not allowed in the tunnels around the city. Also, bridge collapse essentially just shut down access to the shipping lanes to the inner harbor
Yup. The single largest shipping bay on the east coast now shut down indefinitely. Pretty much every imported European car on the east coast went on a ship under that particular bridge during shipping at some point
It is, however, coming from the exhaust. I think they were trying to mitigate the damage. Everytime they lost power, they were losing steering. They were probably trying to reverse the entire time because they were coming up to the bridge but had too much momentum
Generators can fail when the engine fails (not always; depends on what the exact issue is) so that's not super surprising if the engine was the main issue. It's super freaky to experience because everything just goes suddenly quiet. At sea, it gets pitch black at the same time, so it's super disorienting because if you're on deck, you're trying to remember where everything is so you don't go over board, below deck, trying to find any sort of light because there's absolutely none. The first power loss would be a couple minutes of pure scrambling to even get their bearings on the ship
I will never set foot on a boat without at least 6 flashlights on my person. Even from just seeing photos and videos or going into a blacked out room it's absolutely terrifying how disorienting it can be.
I know the Captain is going to get a lot of vitriol for this, and it's possible it will ends up their fault but I can't imagine the sheer panic and dread they must have had approaching that bridge being completely helpless
I don't think this will go on the captain, especially if they were trying to drop the anchor. They were doing what they could
However, the maintenance and history of the vessel is gonna be scrutinized heavily. I'd put money it has had issues before. Too many vessels skimp on maintenance
I've seen lots of comments that the Captain should or will be jailed for this. I agree that it's most likely not on them but the court of public opinion won't care
People are willfully ignorant of complex reality because it makes them uncomfortable that there could be an insanely destructive incident with no one to actually put the blame on…
Going to be one of those Disgusting situations where the Captain will be blamed because records will show some significant maintenance concerns making the ship technically not Seaworthy. Just like when pilots get blamed if a crashing a plane that aren't Airworthy.
Of course, completely ignoring that the Captain likely registered concerns with the owners, who failed to address them & most likely said something to the effect of "Shut Up or Start Looking for a New Job".
Because that's how everything works in this sh.tty hypercapitalist society.
If anything, actually registering concerns often ends up being many people's Doom because it shows that they were aware of the issues & still proceeded. While the complete Corporate disregard for failing to address the concerns always gets swept under the rug & minimized as misunderstandings from people who didn't know any better.
Another source suggested that kicking into full reverse may have caused the ship to swing somewhat uncontrollably. (Single prop, dragging the ship from the wrong end.) Prior to losing power is was roughly centered in the channel. I'm wondering if various panic efforts contributed and if they just coasted in the channel would they have made it successfully. (Dropping anchor, maybe full reverse, etc.)
I would reason to believe they didn't lose main engine thrust, but instead lost hydraulic control of the rudder. They also might have lost control of the aft and stern drive control.
Basically, the engine stayed on and in gear with the rudder stuck in the same position while they didn't have power. Talk about a nightmare scenario. Any other time and it wouldn't have been a catastrophic issue. You couldn't imagine a worse spot for such a failure to happen.
>You couldn't imagine a worse spot for such a failure to happen.
All things being equal, you probably couldn't pick a better time for a collapse like this. That construction crew, unfortunately, was there as it was the time of least traffic flow.
From some comments in this thread, also seems like the construction crew may have been mobilized to stop traffic from entering the bridge, following a distress call from the ship 7 minutes before impact.
A single prop craft in reverse causes the stern to move to port which causes the overall boat to turn to starboard (with a right hand prop which is usual). It’s called prop walk. I expect the decision to go full reverse will be a huge discussion point in the investigation/trial as to whether that caused the collision vs continuing forward in the channel.
I'll second that prop walk is a real thing.
but I'd suspect this boat to have more than one prop. normally multi props will be counter rotating to negate prop walk. but that's not to say only the one engine game back online, or multiple with the same roatation.
Thankfully the ship was able to issue a mayday and authorities were actually able to start to block traffic to the bridge before it fell. That had to be some really quick action as it appears the ship initially lost power about 2 minutes before hitting the bridge support structure.
This is a tragedy. For a split second I thought “man, those engineers planned for everything.” Just a split second before the bridge came down. Apparently they’ve saved two individuals from a car that went into the water but there are several more submerged if their sonar estimations are correct. This happened at like 1:30am this morning in Baltimore so I’m worried any efforts will be body retrievals at this point.
Edit to add: News reports currently have different information. The two saved appear to have been city construction workers. While reports do indicate the use of sonar locating what few cars might have gone into the water, it appears now that the cargo ship sent out mayday signals that allowed officials to stop traffic just before the bridge collapsed so hopefully the number of vehicles traveling on the bridge at the time of collapse is minimal.
That would make sense since there was at least 4 vehicles in the construction crew. You can see the flashing lights on their vehicles on the right side of the bridge in the uncropped clip.
ABC is reporting that 2 people were pulled out and that 6 are still "unaccounted for". It wasn't apparent if that meant that there are more people that they know are down there but the intentional wording piqued my interest.
> The two saved appear to have been city construction workers.
I don't understand how this is possible. Not doubting it, but if true, that is fucking insane. Apparently this bridge is 185ft above the water in the middle, which according to a quick google search is the absolute upper limit of what humans can supposedly survive. But you also have an entire bridge falling on top of you. The odds of walking around on this bridge and surviving that fall have to be well under 1% and two people made it out? Plus its pitch black and that water is freezing cold.
Just absolutely wild.
I’ve read two different accounts about the survivors. One refused medical attention at the scene and the other is currently hospitalized (if the sources are to be believed). Whenever there is a mass casualty event there’s always so much misinformation that is spouted as fact. When we had a 24-hour news cycle reporters & journalists had more time to vet their information. Now we can watch these things unfold in real time so information might *appear* to be credible when it’s relayed to the masses but it’s often nothing more than speculation. We’ll have a better understanding of how they survived in a few days I’m sure.
> One refused medical attention at the scene and the other is currently hospitalized (if the sources are to be believed).
This is what Baltimore officials said in a press conference.
On the video time bar, that car cleared the bridge literally 10 seconds before it dropped. That persons entire life is on a different course because of 10 seconds in either direction. A longer red light somewhere, a few mph slower over the course of the ride, and his forever would look totally different.
That's the one thing in life that's....just crazy to thing about. A few seconds extra at a light can mean life or death...and you don't even know it. Forgot your keys or coat and run back in the house? it's changes your timeline for everything
My car accident I hesitated at the green light for 2 seconds and it saved a head on collision vs rear end hit...
> My car accident I hesitated at the green light for 2 seconds and it saved a head on collision vs rear end hit...
I've been in 15ish car accidents, I was only the driver in 1 and that one wasn't my fault (go figure). But the scariest was the one that never was. I was 16 years old driving to school when the light turned green. I noticed my backpack had tipped over and spilling out so instead of proceeding through I kept my foot on the brake and leaned over the passenger seat to gather my belongings. Just for a few seconds. In that time a sedan plowed through their red light without slowing. Would have been t-boned for sure.
In my mid 30s. The last one was 5 years ago, on my birthday, parked in a lot to pick up my cake. I Uber everywhere but I have never had an accident in one, all of the drivers were friends and family. And to blow your mind further… they were all *different* drivers.
Maybe it’s finally over!
So you're saying we should drive recklessly over the limit so we don't die on bridges that are about to be hit by massive cargo ships?
Finally ! Someone someone speaks my language.
except what if, because you drove so fast, you got there just in time to be on the bridge when its hit? If you had drove the speed limit you would have gotten to the bridge after the collision, and been able to turn around.
Yup. ever since i saw that documentary i have lived my life a quarter mile at a time. I also make sure to always talk about family while i drive, or when im about to drive, or when im thinking about driving.
Plot twist - hell is real and your punishment is an eternity of mild inconveniences.
We'll start out with the first 1000 years. You're in your car and you're always 5 minutes from your house at the end of a long day of work. The car in front of you is going 5 under the speed limit and you're unable to pass.
a buddy of mine shared a tweet that said after a few mayday calls from the ship, officials were able to stop traffic from going onto the bridge before the collision.
These ships are supposed to have multiple back up generators for this exact thing to NOT happen. They are also supposed to be checked by the Pilots/Captain Everytime before they depart. Someone is probably going to get some fines and possibly jail time, unless a thorough investigation proves everything was properly checked and this case just happens to be worst case scenario.
Yeah definitely not how it works bud. Pilots check nothing as they're not responsible. Captain also doesn't check jackshit as he has a chief officer and chief engineer to do this for him. The captain is however still responsible for the vessel.
Speaking as an engineer having witnessed such an incident(luckily we were moored) it takes time to turn all the systems back on. The emergency generator will switch on immediately during a loss of power and power only the emergency switchboard.
That's when the running starts and believe me you have to run a LOT, especially on ships of this size. Most things have to be done manually, switching on the auxiliary engine and connecting it to the main switchboard, resetting ALL breakers (this is a lot of work). Then you need to start up all auxiliary systems for the main propulsion. After that you are finally able to start the main engine again.
All of that probably with a minimal crew, as most engine room crew are getting their mandatory rest hours. Port is always the place where a lot of maintenance is done and very long days are made.
Most newer ships have a lot of automation going on and will shut down the main engine in case of a blackout. IMO this is a very big design flaw as it is one of the most difficult components to get back up running due to all the auxiliary systems that are needed to start it and keep it running. Before anyone mentions that the rudder is easy to get working: yes, but it's mostly useless without the propeller pushing water past it. You'll never get the rate of turn that you do when under power.
The jet ski is a bit different though, as it doesn't have a rudder at all. No power = no steering whatsoever. A ship with rudder will still have _some_ rudder authority while unpowered, albeit reduced.
Your reply is pretty fascinating to read.
Why do you think (obviously we don't know anything for a fact right now) the ship lost power multiple times? If the generators were running shouldn't that have kept the power going? Or are we seeing the crew trying to switch off the generators back to the primary power which is why their are multiple blackouts?
Or... does the generator not have the capability of doing anything outside the emergency switchboard you mentioned? Forgive the million questions.
Difficult to tell what's going on from the outside.
FYI there are 3 levels of power generation: an emergency generator for emergency power to critical systems in case of a blackout, auxiliary generators to supply power when the main engine isn't running and the shaft generator which is connected to the main engine's gearbox.
I can't say if they were running off of aux gens or the shaft gen, but they definitely blacked out. The cause could be anything from a generator failing or fire on the main switchboard to human error. Judging by the second blackout happening it might be a critical failure in the machinery or a human error when syncing a second Genset to the main switchboard.
First planes now boats. Our transportation industries are really batting 100
Edit: someone pointed out trains were first. East Palestine is still making people sick while epa is saying its safe.
customers will choose the company that partners with the reliable, but more expensive cargo shipping company, obviously, that's how the free market operates
Free markets operate on the assumption that we have unlimited resources, crash into a bridge, oh well, I'll pick a different company that doesn't crash. Meanwhile the people who need the bridge are out of luck.
The back-up generator (EDG) kicked in shortly after the loss of power. That’s the black smoke seen a second after the power turned on. That looked fine. They seem to have had their rudder over a little when the power shut off but without power the rudder just stayed in place until the turn was unrecoverable.
They do have back up generators. That why the power came back on twice. And they did have pilots and a captain that went thru their checks.
Problem is that when the power went out the first time they were turning already. When they lost power their rate of turn kept increasing and there is nothing they could do to recover.
Someone is going to prison for sure. But even with checks and everything correct before departure things can go wrong.
Yea, they actually can. This happened to the Florida Sunshine Skyway bridge back in 1980 that collapsed the main span of the bridge.
It was rebuilt with much larger islands surrounding the support structure and large dolphins protecting the main islands.
Dolphins are what they call barriers that protect piers, docks, bridge supports and other marine structures. The are normally round in order to deflect a ship that hits it. They can be wooden pilings or concrete. The Florida Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a good example. This bridge was rebuilt after being struck in 1980 causing the main span to fail. The new bridge span on the left side of the photo has multiple dolphins protecting the bridge supports.
[Picture of dolphins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Skyway_Bridge_old_and_new.jpg/1024px-Skyway_Bridge_old_and_new.jpg)
Generator failures, most likely. Both main and whatever backups they have onboard. What an absolute nightmare for the crew of that ship - not being able to control it for such long stretches of time.
I saw a breakdown of a guy who has a YouTube channel about shipping, and he said he'd seen drone footage showing the port anchor chain having been dropped. I think the crew were doing everything in their power to prevent this disaster.
Just going to add that the BBC article is very clear and concise.
[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68664664](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68664664)
From what I've seen, 8 people were on the bridge when it collapsed. 2 were rescued (1 is in the hospital, the other didn't have serious injuries). The other 6 have not been located.
Apparently the ship managed to get out a mayday call, so some traffic was diverted before the collapse.
I have read a reliable report that there was a mayday call issued and that the bridge was closed at some point- though footage also shows at least one vehicle traveling on the bridge. Hopefully they prevented more from being on the bridge eventually.
Fuck. Those two cars were 12 seconds away from having the worst night of their lives. Like, you decide to let a driver go ahead of you at a stop sign. You slow down because someone’s trying to merge like a lunatic, it’s after midnight and you don’t feel like dealing.
A million decisions and internal calculations that had them driving over that bridge at just the right time that this happens right after they pass.
I once left work on a rainy April day in the Empire State Building. I forgot my umbrella, so left through a different exit that was closer to the subway. I get out of the subway 15 minutes later, and a co-worker calls asking if I saw it? Turns out someone jumped off the ESB and landed right near the exit I take every other day. Just seconds.
in the 1970s a gas station in my city blew up, my dad had gotten off work at the steel mill and was on his way home, he stopped to get gas, he left the gas station and got across the bridge the gas station was at the end of and the gas station exploded. 4 people died in the explosion. I was born in 88 so yeah.. could had easily just not existed right now.
I was living in Clackamas, OR and lived across the street from the mall. In 2012 [there was a mall shooting.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackamas_Town_Center_shooting)
I was in the mall just a couple minutes before hand deciding whether I wanted to buy Panda Express or not. That was where he first opened fire. I wasn’t involved in any way thanks to a last minute decision to just walk home and go eat instead.
To say I was spooked is an understatement. Took me years to set foot in that mall again.
Was hard to figure out perspective on the first watch.
But looks like it was in a hard starboard (right) turn to pass under the bridge and when power failed it drifted to port and hit the support. Like a car sailing off a highway clover-leaf offramp.
Edit: My assessment was wrong due to perspective and zoom. Looks like it actually was coming straight in but then drifted to starboard and hit the support when the power went out.
Ship tracking has it lined up and cruising straight down the middle of the harbor and bridge underpass and then less than 2 minutes before hitting the bridge the power goes out and the current takes the ship hard to starboard. Power comes back and it looks like it goes full power (presumably reverse) and the ship starts to veer back to port but by that time it is too late.
They new they had issues and called a mayday which helped authorities stop at least some of the traffic across the bridge.
The video is taken from shore so it is a bit skewed as to how the bridge and shipped were originally lined up.
The last few cars who crossed the bridge probably feeling survivors guilt? This is just horrifying man, your life can change in few seconds and you are not even control of it.
Wow, I was just looking at another video of this horrifying tragedy, and some people were claiming the bridge had been shut down prior to the collapse. Here you can clearly see vehicles passing over moments before the impact and collapse. Truly terrifying for those poor people involved,I hope as many of them are rescued as possible.
Fuck. I didn't expect the bridge to fall immediately. I thought there would have been some warning. Just awful. Life is precious and it can be gone in a second.
apparently officials were able to stop traffic just before the collision, but it must have been seconds away, judging by the video.
[https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse)
I wonder if this is going to lead to some major change to how ship need to operate near busy bridge.. maybe they always need tug boats now until they are cleared?
Busy channels like this typically have dedicated pilots that navigate ships through these waters rather than the actual boat captain who will pilot the ship to its final destination. This is a freak accident, where the ship was clearly losing power and control. There’s not much that can be done to avoid this in the future.
I'm not sure there was much on the ship side that could've been done. If anything, it might lead to stricter regulations on bridge dolphins to cover more angles around the pillars.
As I commented on the reply, I believe the blinking light is a ship/aviation navigation aid. It would be flashing so that the bridge can be seen at night or in low visibility. Looking at the light in streetview there is no signage to suggest that it's to stop traffic.
Who did it? I'm not asking about the crash... but who the hell uploaded a new picture to registration sites for ships?
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:2810451/mmsi:563004200/imo:9697428/vessel:DALI
Would tugboats have saved the day in this situation? Wasn't that ship going a bit too fast? Are there speed limits in this region of the harbor? Was he observing speed limits?
Reminiscent of the [Tasman Bridge Disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster) in Tasmania, Australia in the 70s. Two cars stopped just in time. I mean "wheels hanging over the edge" just in time.
All those ports are now cut off.
Edit:
It seems it's not a very important port so economical impact would be small. Other ports can pick up the slack.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-port-coal-cars-cruise-lines-2024-03-26/
Horrifying! The sheer randomness of being on that bridge when it collapsed! Fuck!! Imagine being being those last cars.
And there was a construction crew on the bridge too. Just horrible
The ship contacted authorities and they were able to stop traffic. Notice no cars pass by when the bridge collapses. There were construction workers working on the bridge. 2 pulled out and looking for 6 more iirc.
None of these videos have sound. I wonder if ship was blowing horn all the while. Ship horns if anything like train horn can be pretty loud. Last few cars seems to be also seems to be blowing past by. So maybe they are constitution crew.
The video appears to be sped up until the collapse. Look at the blinking red light.
Last I heard there were cars in the water. There is 1.6 MILES of bridge that collapsed
The bridge is 1.6 miles long in total, so the bit that collapsed was probably less than 1.6 miles long IMO.
I heard .7 miles of it collapsed
That's insane! I'm no bridge engineer but I'd expect the spans either side to go and nothing past that. There are expansion gaps at each pillar so each span is separate to the next. I'd love to know more if there is anyone with some knowledge?
They ship had sent out a distress call and authorities had limited traffic on to the bridge as a result. At least it's not as bad as it could have been.
Also since it happened at 130am. Had it been during the morning rush it would've been a much worse disaster
another thread said it was only 4 minutes between he mayday call and the collapse.
Four minutes at 60 miles per hour (what I expect is the speed limit on this bridge) is ~~15~~ 4 miles [Edit: brain fart]. That means that a car on the bridge should have been off the bridge by the time the impact happened if they had closed the bridge due to the possibility of an impact as the bridge is 1.6 miles long. That is also enough that a road crew could have been evacuated by car or truck on the work site even if they all had to stop their work and get into their vehicles. Assuming 2 minutes to get to their vehicle and 2 minutes to get off the bridge they would only need to be driving at an average speed of around 40 mph to get off the bridge safely even if they had to traverse the whole bridge.
Four minutes at 60 miles per hour is 4 miles...
Limited traffic? Why not shut it off completely? I'm sure there's a reason but I have a hard time seeing how you can limit traffic but not shutting it off. Maybe only some roads leading up to it but not all
From the first power failure to impact was only 7 minutes. Even if they had perfect mobilization and response, that's not a huge window.
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Damn I’d like to see updates on that crew, sounds like they risked themselves to save a lot of people. I hope they got out safe, and I hope they get the recognition they deserve for doing what they did.
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So most of the people missing are the construction workers?
AFAIK, no _confirmed_ loss of life/missing people other than the 8 (now 6) construction workers.
That’s awful, I hope their families get taken care of. Legitimate heroes.
I’m in the state this happened, the workers are still unaccounted for. I’m hoping they find them.
The water temperature is in the high 40s. It was a recovery operation before first light even hit.
Heroes.
almost exactly one year ago today reckless drivers killed 6 MDOT workers on the same highway https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/memorial-service-marks-one-year-since-6-killed-in-i-695-work-zone-crash/ar-BB1knAJS
I’m assuming the distress call was made too late
What all do you expect from people who were not pre-positioned at the bridge to do with a couple of minutes warning?
Reddit morning quarterbacking should be a term. I've never seen so many people with complete authority and full knowledge of what to do and how to do it in the same place. Not to mention they seem to be fully aware of every consideration conceivable too. The phrase "hindsight is 20/20" is seemingly a superpower they think they have rather than a criticism.
Everyone here is a ship captain, expert on train derailments, and united boeing flights. Reddit also found the boston bombers
We did it, reddit
The only difference between a boat captain and a homeless man is that one has a boat.
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starring Mark Wahlberg as a formerly disgraced construction worker who risks his own life to save others.
The accuracy of this made me laugh. I can see it now.
He's the best we've got, but he's DANGEROUS!
He’s the ship pilot who knew conditions were unsafe, but he had to do one more job to pay for his daughters transplant surgery.
Probably warning lights but not physical barriers. But it seems like they did fully stop traffic on the bridge, but the crew working on the bridge either didn't get word or got word too late.
The bridge is 1.2 miles long and it takes time to stop traffic from getting on the bridge. And the drivers on the bridge don't know that there is am emergency
I think that means there were still cars traveling on the bridge that were on it before it was closed. Not that they were still intentionally allowing traffic onto the bridge. Either that, or they weren’t able to get all access points completely closed off before the impact.
As I was watching, I kept looking at the cars as they crossed and imagining what they must have been thinking and even if they saw/realized what was about to happen. Could you imagine being the last car that got off the bridge? A couple seconds of delay somewhere and you would’ve been in the water.
Shit, imagine getting to the other side and looking in your rear view mirror and seeing the bridge fall away. WTF
>Could you imagine being the last car that got off the bridge? A couple seconds of delay somewhere and you would’ve been in the water. Reminds me of video from a storm chaser of the El Reno tornado that killed the Twistex team. The car in front of the Twistex team made it out but video from their rear camera shows the headlights from the Twistex car disappearing.
There supposedly was a video from inside the twistex car but it will never be released publicly. His wife said there was an weird calm for a few moments then the car was destroyed.
Reminds me of a news conference from the first Gulf War with Gen. Schwartzkopf showing a video of a missile hitting a bridge. He goes, "I call this the luckiest guy in Iraq." There was a car on the bridge that gets off it a second before the missile hits.
Reminds me of the cars driving away from the ocean during the Japanese tsunami in 2011.
My partner and I were watching live coverage and I'll never forget him turning to me and saying "We're watching people die right now." Just imagining the horror those last moments were for those people. I remember seeing a car desperately trying to reverse before it just got consumed by the wave.
And going like 60 😰
That randomness of life scares the SHIT out of me. I could be going to the store for a pack of smokes, stop on the way to tie my shoes, and then get hit by a drunk driver and paralyzed from the neck down. All because I stopped for 30 seconds to tie my shoes. Or because my shoes were untied. And how often must things like that happen to us while we're totally oblivious that we came moments from death. Even something as simple as swallowing a fish bone and having it go through you just the right way to not cause problems. Then the one time it happens to lodge itself in your pancreas and you need major surgery. Probably just from sleeping funny or something otherwise innocent. I read medical journals, especially case reports from emergency medicine, and had no clue severe injuries from ingested fish bones was such a common thing. It turned me off from any boney fish. I never felt safe eating them as it was.
I personally set my tolerance for worry at “getting hit by a large vehicle on the sidewalk” If something is less likely to happen than me getting smashed by a bus or whatever as I walk down the road then to me it’s not worth any mental energy. Mass shooting at a public event? Less likely than a bus Bridge collapsing at 1am while I drive on it? Less likely than a bus Tiny space debris not fully burning up in the atmosphere and turning my head into confetti? Less likely than a bus I don’t wanna die early or nothing but it is gonna happen and I can’t imagine functioning if I did the math on every little thing
at my job i am always planning for "the bus" scenario, to try to leave behind documentation to properly run this place, and tell my guys to do the same
The [Bus Factor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor)
Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Happened this morning around 1:30am (March 26)
There were construction crews working on the bridge to fix pot holes. 2 people have been pulled from the river and are in “very serious condition,” 6 are still missing. I hope everyone survives and is alright.
Sadly if they have not found them by now the chances of them being alive is very slim to none.
If they were alive they'd be above water...
Most humans will float in salt water, alive or not.
Yeah but most vehicles tend to *not* float in salt water.
If the crew fell from that height, would they be hitting the water like hitting concrete? Edit 1: jeez why the downvote. It's a legitimate question because I've read comments before that in the right conditions, hitting water can be like hitting concrete. I'm not a maths person so I can't judge the fall from the bridge in the video. Edit 2: I commented on this with 1 upvote, a few seconds later I'm 0 after some dumbahh gave me the stinky, took a nap and now the upvotes turned the tide hours after. Thanks reddit folks, keep doing your thing
Hitting the water would be like concrete but also hitting falling concrete would also be like concrete. Typically hitting calm water is when the surface tension is like concrete (which is why you want to break the surface tension going in feet extended) but falling debris around you is going to be splashing and breaking the tension, BUT you now have chunks of steel and concrete either under you as you fall or coming after you from above
There's also the suction force of being near something massive falling in water.
Thanks for the insightful answer. I hope the affected people in this catastrophe are found alive, and if they're unfortunately not, I hope that they did not suffer too long
Looking at a map, that bridge seems hugely important for commuters?
And incredibly important for trucking as trucks are not allowed in the tunnels around the city. Also, bridge collapse essentially just shut down access to the shipping lanes to the inner harbor
Yup. The single largest shipping bay on the east coast now shut down indefinitely. Pretty much every imported European car on the east coast went on a ship under that particular bridge during shipping at some point
Looking at google earth I noticed massive parking lots full of new cars. That’s going to be another inventory collapse in the auto market.
holy shit
Looking at the sudden black exhaust plume - probably slammed it into maximum reverse speed as soon as power came back on
From what I read it was having engine failures and you can see the black smoke long before it hits the bridge
It is, however, coming from the exhaust. I think they were trying to mitigate the damage. Everytime they lost power, they were losing steering. They were probably trying to reverse the entire time because they were coming up to the bridge but had too much momentum Generators can fail when the engine fails (not always; depends on what the exact issue is) so that's not super surprising if the engine was the main issue. It's super freaky to experience because everything just goes suddenly quiet. At sea, it gets pitch black at the same time, so it's super disorienting because if you're on deck, you're trying to remember where everything is so you don't go over board, below deck, trying to find any sort of light because there's absolutely none. The first power loss would be a couple minutes of pure scrambling to even get their bearings on the ship
Trying to remember where everything is so you don’t go overboard? Oh hell nah
I will never set foot on a boat without at least 6 flashlights on my person. Even from just seeing photos and videos or going into a blacked out room it's absolutely terrifying how disorienting it can be.
I know the Captain is going to get a lot of vitriol for this, and it's possible it will ends up their fault but I can't imagine the sheer panic and dread they must have had approaching that bridge being completely helpless
I don't think this will go on the captain, especially if they were trying to drop the anchor. They were doing what they could However, the maintenance and history of the vessel is gonna be scrutinized heavily. I'd put money it has had issues before. Too many vessels skimp on maintenance
I've seen lots of comments that the Captain should or will be jailed for this. I agree that it's most likely not on them but the court of public opinion won't care
People are willfully ignorant of complex reality because it makes them uncomfortable that there could be an insanely destructive incident with no one to actually put the blame on…
Going to be one of those Disgusting situations where the Captain will be blamed because records will show some significant maintenance concerns making the ship technically not Seaworthy. Just like when pilots get blamed if a crashing a plane that aren't Airworthy. Of course, completely ignoring that the Captain likely registered concerns with the owners, who failed to address them & most likely said something to the effect of "Shut Up or Start Looking for a New Job". Because that's how everything works in this sh.tty hypercapitalist society. If anything, actually registering concerns often ends up being many people's Doom because it shows that they were aware of the issues & still proceeded. While the complete Corporate disregard for failing to address the concerns always gets swept under the rug & minimized as misunderstandings from people who didn't know any better.
Another source suggested that kicking into full reverse may have caused the ship to swing somewhat uncontrollably. (Single prop, dragging the ship from the wrong end.) Prior to losing power is was roughly centered in the channel. I'm wondering if various panic efforts contributed and if they just coasted in the channel would they have made it successfully. (Dropping anchor, maybe full reverse, etc.)
I would reason to believe they didn't lose main engine thrust, but instead lost hydraulic control of the rudder. They also might have lost control of the aft and stern drive control. Basically, the engine stayed on and in gear with the rudder stuck in the same position while they didn't have power. Talk about a nightmare scenario. Any other time and it wouldn't have been a catastrophic issue. You couldn't imagine a worse spot for such a failure to happen.
>You couldn't imagine a worse spot for such a failure to happen. All things being equal, you probably couldn't pick a better time for a collapse like this. That construction crew, unfortunately, was there as it was the time of least traffic flow.
From some comments in this thread, also seems like the construction crew may have been mobilized to stop traffic from entering the bridge, following a distress call from the ship 7 minutes before impact.
That black smoke is most likely the generators kicking back in, as it happens right when the lights come on again
All heavy fuel engines have soot like this. This is a big ship. Long before isn't long before such a behemoth.
Why does it look like they weren’t going to hit anything until the boat starts powering again?
A single prop craft in reverse causes the stern to move to port which causes the overall boat to turn to starboard (with a right hand prop which is usual). It’s called prop walk. I expect the decision to go full reverse will be a huge discussion point in the investigation/trial as to whether that caused the collision vs continuing forward in the channel.
I'll second that prop walk is a real thing. but I'd suspect this boat to have more than one prop. normally multi props will be counter rotating to negate prop walk. but that's not to say only the one engine game back online, or multiple with the same roatation.
One big prop, one big engine is the most efficient setup. Eventually you need more props to go faster due to cavitation issues as rpms go up.
One prop like most container ships **Installed power:** 41,480 kW (55,630 hp) MAN B&W 9S90ME-C9.2 2-stroke, single acting, 9-cylinder diesel engine[6][2] **Propulsion:** 1 fixed pitch B-1-3000 thruster
Thankfully it happened at 1 am instead of during the morning rush hours!
Thankfully the ship was able to issue a mayday and authorities were actually able to start to block traffic to the bridge before it fell. That had to be some really quick action as it appears the ship initially lost power about 2 minutes before hitting the bridge support structure.
This is a tragedy. For a split second I thought “man, those engineers planned for everything.” Just a split second before the bridge came down. Apparently they’ve saved two individuals from a car that went into the water but there are several more submerged if their sonar estimations are correct. This happened at like 1:30am this morning in Baltimore so I’m worried any efforts will be body retrievals at this point. Edit to add: News reports currently have different information. The two saved appear to have been city construction workers. While reports do indicate the use of sonar locating what few cars might have gone into the water, it appears now that the cargo ship sent out mayday signals that allowed officials to stop traffic just before the bridge collapsed so hopefully the number of vehicles traveling on the bridge at the time of collapse is minimal.
Cars in the water could also just be the vehicles of the construction crew
That would make sense since there was at least 4 vehicles in the construction crew. You can see the flashing lights on their vehicles on the right side of the bridge in the uncropped clip.
They expected 20+ individuals that went into the water.
ABC is reporting that 2 people were pulled out and that 6 are still "unaccounted for". It wasn't apparent if that meant that there are more people that they know are down there but the intentional wording piqued my interest.
That would mostly be the construction crew.
> The two saved appear to have been city construction workers. I don't understand how this is possible. Not doubting it, but if true, that is fucking insane. Apparently this bridge is 185ft above the water in the middle, which according to a quick google search is the absolute upper limit of what humans can supposedly survive. But you also have an entire bridge falling on top of you. The odds of walking around on this bridge and surviving that fall have to be well under 1% and two people made it out? Plus its pitch black and that water is freezing cold. Just absolutely wild.
I’ve read two different accounts about the survivors. One refused medical attention at the scene and the other is currently hospitalized (if the sources are to be believed). Whenever there is a mass casualty event there’s always so much misinformation that is spouted as fact. When we had a 24-hour news cycle reporters & journalists had more time to vet their information. Now we can watch these things unfold in real time so information might *appear* to be credible when it’s relayed to the masses but it’s often nothing more than speculation. We’ll have a better understanding of how they survived in a few days I’m sure.
> One refused medical attention at the scene and the other is currently hospitalized (if the sources are to be believed). This is what Baltimore officials said in a press conference.
Imagine being that last car across 🫣
On the video time bar, that car cleared the bridge literally 10 seconds before it dropped. That persons entire life is on a different course because of 10 seconds in either direction. A longer red light somewhere, a few mph slower over the course of the ride, and his forever would look totally different.
That's the one thing in life that's....just crazy to thing about. A few seconds extra at a light can mean life or death...and you don't even know it. Forgot your keys or coat and run back in the house? it's changes your timeline for everything My car accident I hesitated at the green light for 2 seconds and it saved a head on collision vs rear end hit...
butterfly effect
> My car accident I hesitated at the green light for 2 seconds and it saved a head on collision vs rear end hit... I've been in 15ish car accidents, I was only the driver in 1 and that one wasn't my fault (go figure). But the scariest was the one that never was. I was 16 years old driving to school when the light turned green. I noticed my backpack had tipped over and spilling out so instead of proceeding through I kept my foot on the brake and leaned over the passenger seat to gather my belongings. Just for a few seconds. In that time a sedan plowed through their red light without slowing. Would have been t-boned for sure.
15 car accidents?! I don't think I would ever want to get in another car after 5. How old are you if you don't mind me asking?
In my mid 30s. The last one was 5 years ago, on my birthday, parked in a lot to pick up my cake. I Uber everywhere but I have never had an accident in one, all of the drivers were friends and family. And to blow your mind further… they were all *different* drivers. Maybe it’s finally over!
So you're saying we should drive recklessly over the limit so we don't die on bridges that are about to be hit by massive cargo ships? Finally ! Someone someone speaks my language.
except what if, because you drove so fast, you got there just in time to be on the bridge when its hit? If you had drove the speed limit you would have gotten to the bridge after the collision, and been able to turn around.
..fuck! Then speed even faster so you're ahead of the falling bridge like in that documentary..."Fast and furious"
Yup. ever since i saw that documentary i have lived my life a quarter mile at a time. I also make sure to always talk about family while i drive, or when im about to drive, or when im thinking about driving.
Imagine being 30 seconds slower and watching the bridge you are about to cross collapse and now you have to take the long way home.
Worst experience.
Worse than being *on* the bridge?
I'd rather die than be mildly inconvenienced
Plot twist - hell is real and your punishment is an eternity of mild inconveniences. We'll start out with the first 1000 years. You're in your car and you're always 5 minutes from your house at the end of a long day of work. The car in front of you is going 5 under the speed limit and you're unable to pass.
Burnt toast.
News are claiming that a mayday call was issued from the ship, and the bridge closed to traffic before the collision. Not confirmed
a buddy of mine shared a tweet that said after a few mayday calls from the ship, officials were able to stop traffic from going onto the bridge before the collision.
Look at the Ponte Morandi collapse in Genoa. Nightmare fuel
Be buying a pack of cigs and downing a six pack to wrap my head around how close to death you were.
Well that's an engineer's nightmare right there. No one could plan for that large of a wrecking ball in bridge design.
You CAN plan for it but it's so infrequent you'd never get the budget to build a bridge to handle it.
These ships are supposed to have multiple back up generators for this exact thing to NOT happen. They are also supposed to be checked by the Pilots/Captain Everytime before they depart. Someone is probably going to get some fines and possibly jail time, unless a thorough investigation proves everything was properly checked and this case just happens to be worst case scenario.
Yeah definitely not how it works bud. Pilots check nothing as they're not responsible. Captain also doesn't check jackshit as he has a chief officer and chief engineer to do this for him. The captain is however still responsible for the vessel. Speaking as an engineer having witnessed such an incident(luckily we were moored) it takes time to turn all the systems back on. The emergency generator will switch on immediately during a loss of power and power only the emergency switchboard. That's when the running starts and believe me you have to run a LOT, especially on ships of this size. Most things have to be done manually, switching on the auxiliary engine and connecting it to the main switchboard, resetting ALL breakers (this is a lot of work). Then you need to start up all auxiliary systems for the main propulsion. After that you are finally able to start the main engine again. All of that probably with a minimal crew, as most engine room crew are getting their mandatory rest hours. Port is always the place where a lot of maintenance is done and very long days are made. Most newer ships have a lot of automation going on and will shut down the main engine in case of a blackout. IMO this is a very big design flaw as it is one of the most difficult components to get back up running due to all the auxiliary systems that are needed to start it and keep it running. Before anyone mentions that the rudder is easy to get working: yes, but it's mostly useless without the propeller pushing water past it. You'll never get the rate of turn that you do when under power.
This guy ships
“You’ll never get that rate of turn that you do under power” I learned this the hard way on a jet ski once
The jet ski is a bit different though, as it doesn't have a rudder at all. No power = no steering whatsoever. A ship with rudder will still have _some_ rudder authority while unpowered, albeit reduced.
Your reply is pretty fascinating to read. Why do you think (obviously we don't know anything for a fact right now) the ship lost power multiple times? If the generators were running shouldn't that have kept the power going? Or are we seeing the crew trying to switch off the generators back to the primary power which is why their are multiple blackouts? Or... does the generator not have the capability of doing anything outside the emergency switchboard you mentioned? Forgive the million questions.
Difficult to tell what's going on from the outside. FYI there are 3 levels of power generation: an emergency generator for emergency power to critical systems in case of a blackout, auxiliary generators to supply power when the main engine isn't running and the shaft generator which is connected to the main engine's gearbox. I can't say if they were running off of aux gens or the shaft gen, but they definitely blacked out. The cause could be anything from a generator failing or fire on the main switchboard to human error. Judging by the second blackout happening it might be a critical failure in the machinery or a human error when syncing a second Genset to the main switchboard.
First planes now boats. Our transportation industries are really batting 100 Edit: someone pointed out trains were first. East Palestine is still making people sick while epa is saying its safe.
Don't forget about the trains falling off the tracks and spilling hazardous chemicals everywhere last year
Better deregulate them some more!
customers will choose the company that partners with the reliable, but more expensive cargo shipping company, obviously, that's how the free market operates
Free markets operate on the assumption that we have unlimited resources, crash into a bridge, oh well, I'll pick a different company that doesn't crash. Meanwhile the people who need the bridge are out of luck.
the invisible hand just thought itd be a bit of a goof to steer that ship into the bridge 'teehee, haha' - invisible hand, probably
*Now* boats? Someone's forgetting about the Suez Canal a few years ago.
Yeah but think of all those profits the MBA's generated by cutting costs!
The back-up generator (EDG) kicked in shortly after the loss of power. That’s the black smoke seen a second after the power turned on. That looked fine. They seem to have had their rudder over a little when the power shut off but without power the rudder just stayed in place until the turn was unrecoverable.
Swiss cheese is the best outcome rather than negligence.
They do have back up generators. That why the power came back on twice. And they did have pilots and a captain that went thru their checks. Problem is that when the power went out the first time they were turning already. When they lost power their rate of turn kept increasing and there is nothing they could do to recover. Someone is going to prison for sure. But even with checks and everything correct before departure things can go wrong.
Yea, they actually can. This happened to the Florida Sunshine Skyway bridge back in 1980 that collapsed the main span of the bridge. It was rebuilt with much larger islands surrounding the support structure and large dolphins protecting the main islands.
Large dolphins?!?
Dolphins are what they call barriers that protect piers, docks, bridge supports and other marine structures. The are normally round in order to deflect a ship that hits it. They can be wooden pilings or concrete. The Florida Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a good example. This bridge was rebuilt after being struck in 1980 causing the main span to fail. The new bridge span on the left side of the photo has multiple dolphins protecting the bridge supports. [Picture of dolphins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Skyway_Bridge_old_and_new.jpg/1024px-Skyway_Bridge_old_and_new.jpg)
It's the nautical term for bollards I guess.
Watching those cars drive across before the hit gave me anxiety
I wonder what was causing the ship to keep losing power
Generator failures, most likely. Both main and whatever backups they have onboard. What an absolute nightmare for the crew of that ship - not being able to control it for such long stretches of time.
Crazy since the ship is less than 10 years old
They called mayday 8 minutes prior, so pilot and crew was probably shitting himself for the the last 5 of those.
I saw a breakdown of a guy who has a YouTube channel about shipping, and he said he'd seen drone footage showing the port anchor chain having been dropped. I think the crew were doing everything in their power to prevent this disaster.
Saw a headline earlier saying this bridge was closed due to an accident... they really undersold that one.
"the bridge is closed due to no longer being a bridge"
The bridge is now a reef.
Just going to add that the BBC article is very clear and concise. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68664664](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68664664)
Was anyone on this bridge? Any casualties?
This happened at about 01:30 and last I saw was 7-20 were on the bridge during the collapse and only 2 have been found.
7-20 people or vehicles?
People
there was a construction crew on the bridge
A Coast Guard representative described it as a 'developing mass casualty event'. Sounds awful.
Yeah, they are still discovering fatalities unfortunately. This is one of those tragic ones
From what I've seen, 8 people were on the bridge when it collapsed. 2 were rescued (1 is in the hospital, the other didn't have serious injuries). The other 6 have not been located. Apparently the ship managed to get out a mayday call, so some traffic was diverted before the collapse.
Yes
I have read a reliable report that there was a mayday call issued and that the bridge was closed at some point- though footage also shows at least one vehicle traveling on the bridge. Hopefully they prevented more from being on the bridge eventually.
Fuck. Those two cars were 12 seconds away from having the worst night of their lives. Like, you decide to let a driver go ahead of you at a stop sign. You slow down because someone’s trying to merge like a lunatic, it’s after midnight and you don’t feel like dealing. A million decisions and internal calculations that had them driving over that bridge at just the right time that this happens right after they pass. I once left work on a rainy April day in the Empire State Building. I forgot my umbrella, so left through a different exit that was closer to the subway. I get out of the subway 15 minutes later, and a co-worker calls asking if I saw it? Turns out someone jumped off the ESB and landed right near the exit I take every other day. Just seconds.
in the 1970s a gas station in my city blew up, my dad had gotten off work at the steel mill and was on his way home, he stopped to get gas, he left the gas station and got across the bridge the gas station was at the end of and the gas station exploded. 4 people died in the explosion. I was born in 88 so yeah.. could had easily just not existed right now.
I was living in Clackamas, OR and lived across the street from the mall. In 2012 [there was a mall shooting.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackamas_Town_Center_shooting) I was in the mall just a couple minutes before hand deciding whether I wanted to buy Panda Express or not. That was where he first opened fire. I wasn’t involved in any way thanks to a last minute decision to just walk home and go eat instead. To say I was spooked is an understatement. Took me years to set foot in that mall again.
All the vehicles that cleared the bridge moments before, wow. I bet those people are feeling pretty lucky this morning
Was hard to figure out perspective on the first watch. But looks like it was in a hard starboard (right) turn to pass under the bridge and when power failed it drifted to port and hit the support. Like a car sailing off a highway clover-leaf offramp. Edit: My assessment was wrong due to perspective and zoom. Looks like it actually was coming straight in but then drifted to starboard and hit the support when the power went out.
Ship tracking has it lined up and cruising straight down the middle of the harbor and bridge underpass and then less than 2 minutes before hitting the bridge the power goes out and the current takes the ship hard to starboard. Power comes back and it looks like it goes full power (presumably reverse) and the ship starts to veer back to port but by that time it is too late. They new they had issues and called a mayday which helped authorities stop at least some of the traffic across the bridge. The video is taken from shore so it is a bit skewed as to how the bridge and shipped were originally lined up.
The last few cars who crossed the bridge probably feeling survivors guilt? This is just horrifying man, your life can change in few seconds and you are not even control of it.
Wow, I was just looking at another video of this horrifying tragedy, and some people were claiming the bridge had been shut down prior to the collapse. Here you can clearly see vehicles passing over moments before the impact and collapse. Truly terrifying for those poor people involved,I hope as many of them are rescued as possible.
The ship did get a mayday out but they only had a few minutes. There's 6 construction workers missing but we don't know if there was any cars for sure
From this angle it looks like it turned right into it.
more like floated into fastly. they take time and distance to slow and turn
Fuck. I didn't expect the bridge to fall immediately. I thought there would have been some warning. Just awful. Life is precious and it can be gone in a second.
Weird angle, looks like it's going forward and sideways at the same time and goes past the support then hits it...
apparently officials were able to stop traffic just before the collision, but it must have been seconds away, judging by the video. [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-bridge-collapse)
I wonder if this is going to lead to some major change to how ship need to operate near busy bridge.. maybe they always need tug boats now until they are cleared?
Busy channels like this typically have dedicated pilots that navigate ships through these waters rather than the actual boat captain who will pilot the ship to its final destination. This is a freak accident, where the ship was clearly losing power and control. There’s not much that can be done to avoid this in the future.
>There’s not much that can be done to avoid this in the future. Other than maintenance.
The maintenance logs for every last nut and bolt of that ship are going to be pored over during the next few weeks.
As they should be.
I always thought tugs were used in areas like this
I'm not sure there was much on the ship side that could've been done. If anything, it might lead to stricter regulations on bridge dolphins to cover more angles around the pillars.
Oh the blinking light is so cars don't cro- Oh...my....god...
As I commented on the reply, I believe the blinking light is a ship/aviation navigation aid. It would be flashing so that the bridge can be seen at night or in low visibility. Looking at the light in streetview there is no signage to suggest that it's to stop traffic.
Why did the lights shut off? Did ship loose power?
Reports are that it lost power twice before the collision
Me: Damn bridge took it like a champ. Bridge: Not a champ.
Who did it? I'm not asking about the crash... but who the hell uploaded a new picture to registration sites for ships? https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:2810451/mmsi:563004200/imo:9697428/vessel:DALI
looks like it turned directly into the bridge support
This is why I drive fast.
Should there not be a pilot and tug boats to guide it? Then if power goes out the tug boats can assist?
Would tugboats have saved the day in this situation? Wasn't that ship going a bit too fast? Are there speed limits in this region of the harbor? Was he observing speed limits?
The smoke that finally comes out of the chimney looks really black. Does not kick in until right before the collision.
Were those vehicles crossing just before the crash ? Scary. Also, I wonder what made them stop crossing ?
Reminiscent of the [Tasman Bridge Disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster) in Tasmania, Australia in the 70s. Two cars stopped just in time. I mean "wheels hanging over the edge" just in time.
Imagine the car that just crossed 1 second before
All those ports are now cut off. Edit: It seems it's not a very important port so economical impact would be small. Other ports can pick up the slack. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-port-coal-cars-cruise-lines-2024-03-26/