‘Unthinkable’ bridge tragedy
6 construction workers missing, presumed dead after cargo ship loses power, rams Baltimore structure
BALTIMORE — A cargo ship lost power and rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, destroying the span in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river in a terrifying collapse that could disrupt a vital shipping port for months.
Six construction workers were missing and presumed dead.
The ship’s crew issued a mayday moments before the crash took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge, enabling authorities to limit vehicle traffic on the span, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.
The ship struck one of the bridge’s supports, causing the structure to collapse like a toy. The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.
With the ship barreling toward the bridge at “a very, very rapid speed,” authorities had just enough time to stop cars from coming over the bridge, Moore said.
“These people are heroes,” he said. “They saved lives last night.”
The crash happened in the middle of the night, long before the busy morning commute on the bridge that stretches 1.6 miles and was used by 12 million vehicles last year.
The workers still unaccounted for were part of a construction crew filling potholes on the bridge, said
Paul Wiedefeld, the state’s transportation secretary.
A senior executive at the company that employed the workers said Tuesday afternoon that they were presumed dead, given the water’s depth and the length of time since the crash.
The water temperature was about 47 degrees before dawn Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said the crew was working in the middle of the bridge when it came down.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”
No bodies have been recovered.
Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for Brawner Builders and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when the bridge went down.
“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Campos said. “Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard, one would not know what to do.”
Rescuers pulled two survivors out of the water.
One person was treated at a hospital and discharged hours later.
Multiple vehicles also went into the water, but authorities do not believe anyone was inside.
“It looked like something out of an action movie,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, calling it “an unthinkable tragedy.”
A police dispatcher put out a call just before the collapse, saying a ship had lost its steering and asked officers to stop all traffic, according to Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive.
One officer who stopped traffic radioed that he was going to drive onto the bridge to alert the construction crew. But seconds later, a frantic officer said: “The whole bridge just fell down. Start, start whoever, everybody ... the whole bridge just collapsed.”
On a separate radio channel for maintenance and construction workers, someone said officers were stopping traffic because a ship had lost steering. There was no follow-up order to evacuate, and 30 seconds later the bridge collapsed and the channel went silent.
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
The collapse is almost sure to create a logistical nightmare for months, if not years, along the East Coast, shutting down ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore, a major shipping hub. The accident will also snarl cargo and commuter traffic.
“Losing this bridge will devastate the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast,” Maryland state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, speaking at a news conference near the site, said it was too soon to estimate how long it will take to clear the channel, which is about 50 feet deep.
Highway signs as far south as Virginia warned drivers of delays associated with the bridge.
Synergy Marine Group — which manages the ship, called the Dali — confirmed the vessel hit a pillar of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m. while in control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely into ports. The ship is owned by Grace
Ocean Private Ltd.
Synergy said all crew members and the two pilots on board were accounted for, and there were no reports of any injuries.
The ship was moving at 8 knots, roughly 9 mph, the governor said.
Jagged remnants of the bridge could be seen jutting from the water’s surface. The on-ramp ended abruptly where the span once began.
Donald Heinbuch, a retired chief with Baltimore’s Fire Department, said he was startled awake by a deep rumbling that shook his house for several seconds.
He drove to the river’s edge and couldn’t believe what he saw. “The ship was there, and the bridge was in the water, like it was blown up,” he said.
The bridge spans the Patapsco River at the entrance to a busy harbor, which leads to the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1977, the bridge is named for the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore “as quickly as I can” and that he intends for the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.
“This is going to take some time,” he said. “The people of Baltimore can count on us, though, to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt.”