2024-03-28 05:56:43
On Tuesday night, a ship crashed into a large bridge in the port of Baltimore. The structure collapsed, dragging cars and people into the water. Two of six missing people have now been found dead.
A cargo ship rammed a highway bridge in the port of the US city of Baltimore, causing it to collapse.
Julia Nikhinson / Reuters
According to Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld, eight construction workers were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge repairing potholes at the time of the accident. Two of them were rescued on Tuesday; One of them has now been able to leave the hospital. There has been no trace of the six others – who, according to police, come from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The dead who have now been recovered are two of the missing construction workers, as the Washington Post reported, citing their employer. The authorities also assume that the other missing people are dead and announced that they cannot recover their bodies for the time being. “We have exhausted all search efforts in the area surrounding this scene,” police in Maryland said on Wednesday evening. The use of sonar technology showed that other vehicles that had fallen into the water were surrounded by rubble and concrete and were therefore inaccessible. The conditions in the water around the huge pieces of rubble are now so dangerous that divers can no longer move there safely.
The destroyed Francis Scott Key Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in the United States. President Joe Biden announced during a press conference that the federal government would cover the entire cost of reconstruction. The port of Baltimore should be put back into operation as quickly as possible; For this purpose, the provision of a replacement bridge is planned. The American President also announced that he would soon visit the site of the accident.
Investigators are facing a “tremendous undertaking.”
Despite an emergency call from the ship’s crew before the collision, large parts of the bridge collapsed. The emergency call saved lives: officers on land stopped traffic and prevented more cars from getting onto the bridge.
In the hours following the accident, emergency services initially concentrated on searching for survivors. Intensive investigations into the cause of the accident have now begun. Representatives of the US agency responsible for transport safety, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), boarded the freighter for the first time on Wednesday. Head of the authority Jennifer Homendy presented the first details of the investigation in the evening (local time).
Investigators secured, among other things, the so-called ship data recorder. This is particularly important for researching the cause. According to the recordings on it, crew members reported shortly before the collision that the freighter had problems with the power supply and no longer had propulsion. How this came regarding is still unclear.
According to Homendy, 23 crew members were on board the freighter at the time of the accident. The ship’s cargo included 56 containers with dangerous materials, such as corrosive or flammable substances – weighing a total of 764 tons. Some of the dangerous goods containers were damaged.
According to Homendy, information would first be collected and conclusions and assessments regarding the cause of the accident would only be announced later. The investigation is a “massive undertaking” that will likely take many months. A first preliminary report should be presented in two to four weeks.
The bridge, built in 1976, was in “satisfactory condition” before the accident, Homendy said. The last basic inspection took place in May 2023. However, the bridge is constructed in such a way that the failure of a critical component might cause complete or partial collapse. Today, other methods of building bridges would be preferred.
Investigators are ruling out an act of terrorism. “The preliminary investigation indicates an accident,” said Maryland Governor Wes Moore. There is no evidence of an attack. An FBI investigator made a similar statement. There was initially no further information regarding the cause of the accident.
River is 15 meters deep
According to official information, the first emergency calls were received at around 1:40 a.m. (local time). Emergency services were on site as early as 1:50 a.m. Videos from a surveillance camera that were shared on social networks show how the ship rams one of the support pillars and large parts of the bridge then fall into the water.
BREAKING: Footage shows the moment a major bridge collapsed in the US city of Baltimore following it was hit by a cargo ship.
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American media reported, citing a local official, that the water at the site was around 15 meters deep and there were strong currents. According to reports, the water temperature was just under ten degrees early in the morning.
As the sun rose, the extent of the collapse became clear. The arched struts of the bridge, which spanned the port of the East Coast metropolis as part of the national traffic artery Interstate 695, protrude like a skeleton from the water. A CBS reporter on site reported, visibly shocked, that the bridge had “basically completely disappeared.” The structure is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which crosses the Patapsco River. The bridge is named following the author of the American national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner” and was opened in 1977.
The Port of Baltimore is one of the most important maritime ports of call in the USA – especially for the import and export of cars and light trucks. According to government figures, around 850,000 vehicles are shipped through the port every year. According to various reports, between 8,000 and 15,000 jobs depend on it. The bridge also destroyed an important traffic artery on the east coast of the USA. According to the American government, around 30,000 vehicles crossed the bridge per day before the accident.
Freighter involved in accident in Belgium in 2016
There were no injuries on the ship itself, reported the New York Times. The almost 290 meter long freighter named “Dali” was supposed to sail from Baltimore to Sri Lanka under the Singapore flag, the newspaper reported, citing the coast guard. The ship, operated by the charter company Synergy Group, was chartered by Maersk on a temporary basis, according to a statement from the Danish shipping company Maersk. Cargo from Maersk customers is said to have been transported on it. According to the information, there were no Maersk crew or personnel on the ship. Maersk is the world’s second largest container shipping company behind MSC.
The freighter “Dali” was involved in an accident in Belgium in 2016. As the port authorities of Antwerp announced, the container ship crashed into a quay on July 11th while trying to leave the terminal. The port authority might not provide any information regarding the cause of the accident, but said the ship remained at the dock for repairs for some time following the incident.
Not an isolated case
Accidents like the one in Baltimore are rare, but are not isolated cases worldwide: as recently as February 2024, five people died in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong following a freighter rammed a car bridge and caused it to partially collapse. In Brazil, a nearly 900-meter-long road bridge over the Moju River collapsed in April 2019 following a ferry rammed one of the massive pillars.
In January 2012, a freighter tore a gap more than 90 meters wide in a road bridge in the American state of Kentucky. The ship was loaded with rocket parts for the Air Force and the NASA space agency. The captain took the wrong route and broke through the bridge.
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