Grim hunt for US bridge casualties

RECOVERY efforts resumed yesterday at the site of the collapsed Key Bridge in Baltimore for six people who were unaccounted for and presumed dead.

The collision occurred in the early hours of Tuesday after the container ship Dali lost its steering capability before it hit a pillar of the US city’s bridge.

Audio from first responders revealed a scramble to halt traffic just before the crash.

The bridge is an important link in the region’s transportation infrastructure, and its collapse is expected to snarl commuter traffic and disrupt a vital shipping port for some time.

Within 90 seconds of a dispatcher’s 12-second warning over the radio on

Tuesday, police officers responded that they had managed to stop vehicle traffic over the Baltimore bridge in both directions. One said he was about to drive on to the bridge to alert a construction crew.

But it was too late. Powerless and laden with huge containers, the vessel smashed into a support pillar.

When the ship slammed into the pillar, it caused a long span of the bridge, a major link in the region’s transport networks, to crumple into the Patapsco River. At least eight people went into the water. Two were rescued but the other six, part of a construction crew on the bridge, are missing and presumed dead.

Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries.

Federal and state officials said the crash appeared to be an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and ship traffic entering and leaving the Port of Baltimore has been suspended indefinitely.

Maryland governor Wes Moore said “all of our hearts are broken for the victims and their families”, and he also hailed first responders for acting so swiftly.

“Literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes.”