The six people who lost their lives were maintenance workers on the bridge who, according to details released Wednesday, were taking a break and sitting in a van when the malfunctioning container ship collided with an abutment of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the entire bridge collapsed.
A total of eight workers of the construction company Brawner Builders were performing road repair work at the time of the accident, and two of them were rescued from the water by the emergency units that quickly arrived on the scene, one of them was taken to the hospital in a serious condition.
Among the presumed victims, according to the communication of partly the employer and partly diplomatic representations, two were Guatemalan citizens, and there were also people from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.
On Wednesday, the police radio conversation that the people of the authority conducted in order to close the bridge before the collapse of the two-lane car bridge was made public. This shows that following the emergency signal was sent from the Dali container carrier, two to three minutes passed until the moment of the collision.
In the police recording, it is heard that a patrolman was directed to both ramps of the bridge to completely stop traffic, explaining that an out-of-control ship was approaching the bridge.
The dispatcher then instructed them to make sure that no one was on the bridge following they managed to stop the traffic, because there were more people working on it who also needed to be brought down. The dispatched police officer responded by saying that he would go up to the bridge as soon as the other units arrived, and following less than a minute he reported that the entire bridge had collapsed, according to the conversation on the official radio. rescue units are assigned to search for people on the bridge.
Wes Moore, the governor of the state of Maryland, said on Tuesday that the quick action of the authorities saved lives, and the video footage of the accident shows that vehicles were still crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge barely a minute before the ship hit and the bridge collapsed. I.
The detailed investigation into the circumstances of the disaster is being led by the American National Transportation Safety Board, whose director, Jennifer Homendy, announced on Tuesday that the investigation will cover in detail the documents of the Dali container ship sailing under the Singaporean flag, as well as its technical condition and review history.
According to official documents, the ship underwent technical inspections 27 times between 2015 and 2023, and deficiencies were found twice. The last inspection was conducted by the US Coast Guard in September 2023 in New York and no deficiencies were found, public records show.
The operator of the ship, Synergy Marine PTE Ltd., announced in a statement that the ship’s crew is safe, as well as the two pilots who were on duty on the steering bridge at the time of the run-out. They also added that they are fully cooperating with federal authorities during the investigation.
In a statement on Tuesday, President Joe Biden offered all possible aid for disaster recovery and reconstruction.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the bridge collapse due to special circumstances and also promised that federal funds would become available to the state of Maryland. He noted that there was no bridge capable of withstanding such a direct impact from a ship as large as the container ship involved.
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge forced the closure of Baltimore Harbor, a major transportation hub on the US East Coast, especially because of the deep water that makes it passable for large cruise ships.
Maryland State Senator Ben Cardin stressed at a briefing on Tuesday that reopening the port should be a priority because it is crucial to the region’s economy, but might have an impact across the country by disrupting the supply chain.
The destruction of the bridge also eliminated an important road transport route in the region: the loss of a significant corridor between Washington and Philadelphia and New York might cause congestion on alternative routes even during the upcoming Easter weekend.
The 47th anniversary of the opening of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was commemorated a few days ago, on March 23, by the Maryland Transportation Administration.
The construction of the more than two and a half kilometer long bridge over the mouth of the Patapsco River began in 1972 and was completed in 1977.
The bridge was considered one of the world’s largest multi-span, grid structures: its widest opening spanned 366 meters, and in its central part it rose 56 meters above the water.