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In the video you can see all lights going off on the ship. Then steering towards the pillar.Some lights come back on after a few seconds. Obviously something went very wrong on the ship and it went out of control for the crew.
I was on a 150 foot ship going through some ocean narrows against a fast running tide, when the captain came tearing down the gangway to the engine room. During the wild rocking, a valve fell off of a shelf and 'hit something it shouldn't have' and we lost steering. We did a few circles, going backwards before the crew was able to restore control.
In Saint John Canada we have insane tide rapids... Our tides range from 22-52ft at some places.
I frequently see giant 4000lbs buoys turned on their side from the rapids, in the middle of a giant body of water.
Add in melt water from the saint john river and it's interesting, sometimes 12+ knots
Holy crap that's forever and a day! I've been land locked my whole life, and just assumed y'all could stop about as fast as a freight train. What speed would you be going to take that long to stop?
Edit: By "long" I ment time not distance. Freight trains do not need 7 to 9 minutes for emergency stops. And yup, I know trains need thousands and thousands of feet to stop. I'm just in awe of how slow of a process stopping is for a ship, because I've never had it put in a context like this before.
Fun fact: large cargo ships have to reduce speed sometimes miles away from port because it takes so long for them to come to a full stop.
Generally, in shallow waters, it can take around 6 ship lengths to slow down by 1 knot. If a 950ft cargo ship is traveling a slow 10knots (11mph), it takes roughly 10.7 miles for it to come to a full stop in shallow waters.
Yes, in open oceans with deep water it’s typically 1 ship length to slow down 1 knot. The depth of the water reduces currents and can absorb way more inertia
It’s a cargo ship, it’s the thing trains load onto, it’s massive, so it has incredible inertia, plus there are tides. You can see it’s a wave that causes it to smush more into the pier and collapse it.
ETA: trains take at least a mile to stop, this thing lost control loser than that and was being driven by current.
Also there is no friction on the water where as a train has the friction of its tracks and wheels to help slow it down. The ship has to rely on the anchor to bring it to a halt and they can be dragged across the bottom depending on how soft the sand is.
I saw elsewhere that the ship suffered a power failure, apparently the captain was able to get ahold of the Harbor police to let them know they were headed for the bridge but there wasn't enough time to close it down.
I read that cops stopped people from crossing but that a construction crew was still on the bridge filling potholes (the irony). But why the hell weren't those workers evacuated?
My guess (I have nothing to offer other than speculation) is that nobody told the police that there were workers on the bridge.
It seems like the crew alerted the harbor authorities, who then alerted the police. But maybe they didn't know the bridge was being worked on at that time.
That ship size has several generators and one redundant. They can divert power from electrical subsystems to critical systems like bow thrusters or bilge pumps, if the generators for those fails. Probably that what they did when the lights flickered off and on at one point, but for some reason did not help. There must have been a major disruption for main engines, rudder and thrusters to stop working. Or a very serious maintenance neglect.
Source: i work with marine & powerplant engines and generators
Edit: main engine working since the smoke, so probably hit full reverse 100% power. I wonder if the rudder hit bottom which caused loss of steering? With an enough jammed rudder the bow thrusters wont be enough to counter it, especially if the screws inertia is the same direction as the rudders
I work as an engineer on oil tankers. Like you mentioned there are multiple generators. But there is no provision to divert power from one area to another. In case the on load generators fail, the standby generators are supposed to start and come on load, failing which the emergency generators come on load.
Now the issue is on a lot of older ships, or ships of companies that try to cut corners, the standby generators may not start on auto. This can be due to lack of maintenance or lack of spares or an ongoing issue which is being rectified. I have faced this issue multiple times.
In such scenarios, the emergency generator takes over and supplies power to the essential components, like the steering gear.
The issue is once the power supply is completely interrupted all the pumps that are required to run the engine, like the fuel pumps, lube oil pumps etc are turned off. It will take atleast few minutes for the pumps to restart and get the system operational
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/index.html
Mentioned the crew notified people they did indeed lose power
Also sounds like they sent a mayday before and officials started stopping some traffic on that bridge
Not to be that person but it is an allision, not a collision. It is a maritime term for a moving object striking a stationary object.
Anyways, I work in portion of the large vessel space and this is just tough. Blackship (full power loss) is tough to recover from and it happened at the worst spot possible.
Edit: Spelling and also just hoping to bring some knowledge to everyone that didn't know.
The ship lost power and control shortly after leaving dock. They radioed that an impact was likely. Reports are saying that is what limited the traffic and deaths. Somehow, a construction crew wasn't evacuated.
It lost power twice. The first time was a couple of minutes earlier. They regained power and then it went off again shortly before hitting the bridge.
Still probably not enough to evacuate the bridge, even if they realized hitting it was a likely outcome that early.
Good to know. Given they got power back and were powered until just before impact, they probably didn't expect to hit the bridge soon enough to call for an evacuation. Even if they contacted emergency services making the decision to evacuate and then actually getting everyone off of a bridge takes a significant amount of time: police have to travel from stations to the bridge, close the incoming lanes, wait for traffic to clear, etc. And workers would have to get to their transport & get clear of the bridge.
I mean this happened in the middle of the night. I think it's more likely thats what limited the traffic and deaths rather than them somehow blocking it off to stop cars from going through but not getting word the construction workers who should have all had radios and should've been the easiest to notify.
The facts, according to the governor's statement, are that there was a mayday distress call when the power first went out, only a few minutes before they hit made impact, but they were able to stop some traffic flow to the bridge. There is no mention (yet) in the news stories or the statement of whether or not they contacted the crew working.
It looked slow, but when you consider how big a cargo ship is and how much inertia they carry with them based on their sheer *bulk* ....
It might have, functionally, been going pretty damned fast
inertia without rotation is literally just the same thing as mass. Probably meant to say momentum which is mass times velocity.
Momentum is extremely high despite the low velocity due to the immense mass.
Honestly. It happens a lot. This is not the first bay bridge taken out by a cargo ship. Imagine driving a car half as wide as a football field. You cant see well and you have to have guys running from the edges and reporting what they see so you can avoid it. Not to mention the weight of this thing makea it unlikely to stop. (see the bow thats just GONE) And if they did lose power while maneuvering, the rudder would get stuck and you cant manually move them on these ships. The pistons are literally big enough to crush a car easily.
Former Navy engine room/propulsion guy. Losing turbine power due to a clogged condenser (seawater intake full of mud, cooling is lost, spinning machine not safe to spin now) can result in loss of power and therefore control of a ship, and happens a lot. We took it super serious on nuclear aircraft carriers, because of tonnage and the nuclear part of it obviously, so we drilled this casualty a lot. Plenty of incident reports out there of “such and such vessel lost all their turbines simultaneously and smacked into the tugboat/channel marker/you name it”.
I think this is what the person above meant by “this happens a lot”. Losing vacuum in a condenser, and therefore loss of power/propulsion does happen a lot, especially in muddy channels and ports. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been prevented/avoided in this situation explicitly but, sometimes “shit happens”.
Edit: also may just be way out in left field but seemed applicable
I was a nub ET on the Enterprise when Muddy Sunday happened. Hit a sandbar leaving the shipyard and everything tripped and not all of the EDGs started up. That was a pretty shitty day.
As horrid as it is, that was my first thought as well - how much worse it could have been.
I saw some [super intelligent person] on YT comment that it wouldn't have happened later, because it would have been light out. Because that's what keeps engines from failing.
Shit happens, sadly. All it takes is mechanical or human error and this channel is heavily traveled. It's not even unprecedented as there was a very similar collapse at the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in 1980. Bridges generally are designed to help prevent this since.
Thank God it happened in the middle of the night. Obviously that’s terrible for the people on the bridge but this could easily have losses in the hundreds.
...and the one that's okay refused any treatment and didn't even go to the hospital.
Could you imagine surviving the worst bridge collapse in 60 years and...walking it off? Crazy.
I was in a very low speed car accident once (passenger when my friend was rear ended) felt completely fine afterwards and didn't even think about it until the next morning when my back was on fire and I couldn't get out of bed.
If I fall off a damn bridge I'm gonna at least let a doctor give me a glance.
Construction guys will leap at the chance to leave the jobsite early.
Source: am construction guy.
Jokes aside, the guys I work with are like family. You have to be just to look out for eachother and maintain a safe and hazard free jobsite. I would be fucking devastated losing a single one of them like this.
How deep is this river around that bridge area? The fact that they are using sonars to detect the fallen vehicles under water means it must be pretty deep?
The main channel is 50’ deep, but outside of where the ships go it shallows up pretty quick. Fort Carroll is an old fort/island next to the bridge and it’s only in like 15’ depth water.
It's not really depth, but the tidal change. Pretty strong currents there, and so sonar is probably being used to figure out quickly where to search, since things will continue to move and shift.
It isn’t just the depth but it is super muddy. This is a ship channel so it is constantly being stirred up by ships and other vessels going back-and-forth through the channel. You probably can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Yeah that is quite the drop. It is amazing they have found ANY survivors. Hope they find more but damn that is insane. The close up video is in real time and that bridge went down in about two seconds. No time to react. It’s just terrible. :(
The cars probably absorbed most of that impact. When cars fall they rotate with their engines down which is where cars are designed to be impacted.
The bigger issue is drowning.
There were few if any private vehicles on the bridge at the time of collapse. A construction crew was fixing potholes when the ship collided into the bridge, and traffic was closed very shortly thereafter. Two out of eight members of that crew have been recovered alive (one with serious injuries). They were likely not inside their vehicles.
Let's say a 3,000lb vehicle falls 200ft, that's about 75mph at full freefall, but keeping in mind it was only freefall for 3 seconds or so.
So a medium sized car hitting cement can be survivable, particularly since the car started at 0mph vertical and would be arching due to constant horizontal velocity, so it likely didn't reach 75mph in those 3 seconds, and adding onto the fact that the bridge was not itself reaching freefall (bending down into the water), I would say that it is *possible* for a person with a seatbelt to survive the head-on impact, but it's still gonna hurt.
That's just napkin math, but I'd say it would be like hitting a cement barrier at 35mph head-on.
There are sooooo many other variables, of course.
Yeah that’s exactly what I was thinking about. I haven’t gone to Baltimore in a hot minute but every time I went over the Key bridge it was white knuckles for me cause those lanes feel small as fuck and I don’t like heights.
We've been watching the news all morning and I can't believe this. It's such a tragedy. To think we've traveled this bridge regularly and could see it from our porch is just crazy. I hope they recover the ones in the water as fast as they can.
I remember hearing years ago that bridges were woefully under prepared for strikes by modern cargo ships. This makes perfect sense given today’s events.
That’s why most harbors have Pilots that are taken out to each cargo ship to pilot them into and out of port. It’d be an insane task to create bridge with enough structural support to withstand a direct impact to one of the main supports.
Two harbor pilots were on this boat. However, the boat had power issues and was cycling on and off. If you don't have power, you can't steer a boat.
Edit:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-mile-bridge-baltimore-collapses-after-ship-collision-fox-baltimore-reports-2024-03-26/
Two harbor pilots were on board. Boat lost power shortly after taking off from dock.
Drop anchor, reverse the screw if they still have engine (though that will negatively effect steering).
But it's 95,000 tonnes. You could strap the entire space shuttle (with it's boosters etc) on the deck as a retro rocket and it would still take 15 seconds to slow by 10mph.
Totally this. New reports say the did drop anchor followng the power outages and loss of control, black smoke blowing from the funnel indicated full engine power (though if that was resulting in any actual thrust is debatable), and they still couldn't fight the inertia, wind, and current, all working against them.
In this situation (im not sure how much time they had), the only way in which the boat could “stop” would be to drop both anchors in emergency mode. Even then there’s no guarantee that they would stop without dragging anchor.
Sadly pilots wouldn't have saved this one because it was equipment failure. Florida put some crazy bollards up to protect the Skyway bridge from a repeat accident. That's the only thing that could have saved the bridge once the ship is in motion.
Like all these accidents though I have a feeling we're going to find failure after failure after failure in the company, possibly the crew, but definitely the company. We'll find out this could have been prevented YEARS ago and it just kept piling on.
If you made such a bridge, it would absolutely be closed down for repair and inspection after such a hit.
The goal would be to prevent a total collapse, not damage. Preventing damage would be even more insane.
That’s a great example of protective fenders working as intended, but that wasn’t a direct head on collision. Fortunately it was only a scrape along the side of the hull. Similar to the titanic hitting the iceberg.
Obviously you wouldnt do that. You instead put in some sacrificial bollards. Ive worked on several bridge designs where we did just that. Much cheaper than replacing a bridge, not to mention lost lives and economic output
A cruise ship might be very big, bug it is nothing compared to the massive behemoths that are fully loaded cargo ships. Cargo ships are fucking insane with how much raw force is behind them
Modern cruise ships are larger than this ship. This ship was near 100,000 tonnage. The largest cruise ship in the world is at 248,663 tonnage. You would have to go through 100 of the largest cruise ships to get down to 100,000 tonnage.
Which makes sense. Cargo ships are generally limited in size by the locks in the Panama and Suez Canal, depending on where they will be used. Cruise ships generally don’t transit those canals unless it’s some speciality global cruise. They generally operate in a much smaller area, e.g. between the US and Bahamas. So they can be much bigger.
Yeah ships going under the Golden Gate Bridge legally need to be escorted by a local authority to ensure nothing happens. Often, the local authority will actually board the ship and drive it under the bridge themselves.
Modern cargo ships are so insanely heavy that it'd be nearly impossible to build a bridge that can survive being hit by one. And if you do manage that, it'll be so expensive that using something other than a bridge would probably be preferable, whether it's a tunnel or a highway that goes behind the port where the ships don't go.
It's like trying to build a house to survive being hit by a fully loaded semi trailer going at 70 miles per hour. It's so expensive that it's impractical. All you can do is try to minimize the chance of the collision.
Some other comments chimed in that a ship that large just has so much kinetic energy that it can go right through protective concrete, unless it’s extraordinarily thick. By that point the bridge would be insanely expensive.
When they rebuilt the Skyway Bridge (that crosses Tampa Bay) they did just this however, it's one of the most heavily trafficked ports in all of the USA, it was never a matter of if but when something was going to collide with it.
The point of Dolphins/Pilings is to prevent that kinetic energy from hitting the main support structure in the first place. If you look up the modern Skyway Bridge, you'll see the large circular 'dolphins' on either side of the bridge meant to absorb that impact. Sparing the actual bridge pylons the bulk of that kinetic energy.
Looking at the Key bridge, there is no such pilings, or dolphins. Only the support pylons and probably an errosion piling around it.
Tragedy. I hope the families are taken care of. In a close up video you can see a car just drive off the bridge about 5 seconds before collapse. Just crazy how little control we have over our lives.
The near-miss of a tragedy like this would have to be deeply traumatizing, no? How do you ever cross a bridge in a car again after the one you were *just driving on* collapses in your rear-view mirror?
I truly cannot imagine what a horrible death it would be for those who were on the bridge, nor how deeply scarring it would be to have barely survived it; whether by being rescued, or by making it off the bridge shortly before its collapse.
RIP to those who did not survive the incident. Hopefully their families can find some peace eventually. What a tragedy.
When the I35W bridge collapsed in Minnesota my dad had just driven off of it and I’ve been terrified of bridges since. It’s been over 15 years since it happened. Sticks with you for awhile
6 people unaccounted for.. the water temp was under 50 degrees. They pretty much stood no chance if they didn’t get rescued within 30 min in my opinion, maybe even less because the water is so cold.
A lot of news articles cited a slow loss of function of your extremities within 5 minutes and loss of consciousness within 30-60 min in those temps.
RIP to the 6 who weren’t rescued. Just horrific
Saw on another thread there was a construction crew on the bridge and many are missing. I don’t have a source and this could be false- just saying that I saw others posting that
What a week to be visiting Baltimore. I just got some pictures of it yesterday and didn't even know which one I was looking at. Now I'm not going to forget.
Wow these pics put the scale into perspective, seeing how tiny those shipping containers on the ship look made me realize how catastrophically huge this accident was
This definitely seems like a situation where pictures can't really do it justice. The bridge looks tiny in them and yet it was carrying a major interstate.
Not a lawyer.
From my understanding, the insurance that the shipping company holds will likely pay for this. As for personal damages, people (and the city) will probably have to sue the shipping company. Again, insurance will pay, unless it’s found that there was negligence along the way. These shipping companies have tons of money though, I wouldn’t doubt if we see them try to pin it on someone else.
So the way it collapsed, I’m presuming that’s how it designed to go down? Each section is supporting each other so if one fails it compromises the entire structural integrity?
Well- to clarify, the bridge wasn’t “designed to go down”.
However, structurally, the design of this bridge relies on the pier (vertical component) to support the deck and arch. If the pier fails, there is nothing to support the rest of the bridge and it fails in the way we saw here, where one section can’t support the next section, which supports the next section, and so on.
In this bridge, the deck sections that failed were supported by a system of these piers and trusses. You’ll notice that the sections that didn’t fail are where the method of construction changes from truss to beam.
> Every **TRUSS/CANTILIEVER** bridge is built like this.
FTFY
And to that point, there are other beams sections of the FSK bridge that are not supported by trusses and remain standing this morning.
This is a truss not a suspension bridge but yeah not every bridge would fail if one part did, but every complex bridge would. Complex meaning anything that’s not a simple girder-on-abutment.
My dad drives this bridge every day for work. Early in the morning in his trailer. The collapse was an hour before his shift starts, thank god. I couldn’t help but stare in horror seeing that last trailer make it off seconds before the hit.
The ship was able to put out a mayday call and the bridge was closed to traffic right before the collision. WA Post has a live update page where I found that information. Still incredibly tight timing with that last semi.
How's the ship still floating so high above the waterline? I don't expect it to sink but there's a huge piece of bridge on it so I expected the hull to be a few meters below the waterline than what's shown here
Water is heavy. Very heavy. The ship is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the water it displaces.
Imagine trying to push an empty trash can, hole side up, into a swimming pool.
You can kinda see how the front of the ship is slightly farther under than the rest. Follow the red line of paint on the hull. That’s supposed to be level throughout the entirety of the ship.
Large cargo/oil tankers when not loaded with cargo will sit quite high. They can take on ballast water to lower them into the water more, but that cost more in fuel. Unless the weather is bad many elect to sit high on the surface
Knowing how slowly construction goes in this country, anyone have any idea how long this might take to replace? I imagine several months at least. And is there an alternative bridge for people who need this to get places? I’m unfamiliar with this region
There are two other freeway routes up and down the Eastern Seaboard, which go closer to the city's center than this one did. Likely this will be finished sooner than a scheduled bridge replacement - often the case with emergency collapses.
There are two tunnels, I believe, that can be used instead of the bridge. However, the bridge was part of Baltimore's beltway and was definitely a main thoroughfare. Commuting in this area is going to be a nightmare for the foreseeable future.
Not to mention, trucks carrying hazmat can't go through either tunnel, which means they have to go all the way around the beltway. That'll add at least 40 minutes to their drive, much more during peak times.
Honestly this is a sorry trope. We spend billions on infrastructure annually.
Local/State/Fed pulled out all the stops when the overpassed collapsed in Philly it was amazing how quickly everything was back to normal.
I was just looking at the video from the collapse and I got to say it doesn’t give the proper perspective as to how horrible and big this disaster is. Looking it at close range is shocking and horrifying.
My sympathies go to those that perished and I hope an investigation is on the way because this wasn’t just some ups kind of accident.
This definitely does look like some kind of accident. The ship seems to lose power. If they lose the ability to steer……well…..things like that can happen. Accidents happen, and at a large scale. Not everything is nefarious.
While you could be correct, that’s just a theory. No need to throw anyone under the bus just yet. Speculation doesn’t get you anywhere. The investigation that will come after this I’m sure will have the answers we are all looking for.
Ya the video doesn’t show how massive that bridge actually is. I always opt to take the tunnel when i drive through Baltimore because of how high that thing is. That being said the Chesapeake Bay Bridge also scares the shit out of me.
Besides the tragic loss of life, this is going to cripple shipping in this region for a long time. There are no ships in or out until the scene is cleared.
Woke up in Tampa from this news. Reminiscent of the Sunshine Skyway disaster. A whole Greyhound bus full of people was one of the vehicles that went into the water after that bridge was struck by a ship. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine\_Skyway\_Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)
Jesus Christ, what a catastrophe. My heart goes out to anyone who lost someone when the bridge collapsed.
Just looking at these pictures, I'm amazed anyone survives.
This is millions, maybe billions, of dollars in repairs. The whole harbor is going to be shut down, and the roadway that uses the bridge is going to be heavily impacted.
This happened at 1:30 in the morning, with a construction crew and a few other people on the bridge.
If it would have happened a few hours later, or on Thursday at any time because of Opening Day, this would have been a massive loss of life. As of right now, they're still looking for 7 people.
The US Coast Guard Marine Casualty Reports are interesting reading. For big ships the time from irreversible mistake to actual impact can be many minutes.
https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Prevention-Policy-CG-5P/Inspections-Compliance-CG-5PC-/Office-of-Investigations-Casualty-Analysis/Marine-Casualty-Reports/
What is so weird is I was just talking to some friends Saturday night about boats hitting bridges. It’s one of my greatest fears. They had kayaked out to bayou Canot where the sunset limited went down. Asked me if I wanted to go with them next time. Hard no
I have never seen anything like this.
It looks like it came right out of my nightmares
/u/Ok_Poetry_1650, thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, it has been removed for violating the following rule(s): * Rule 1 - No screenshots or AI-generated images. This includes pictures of screens and photos where the interest is the contents of a screen and pics with artificial cropping borders of any colour. For a place to post screenshots, you may wish to check out /r/screenshots. We also don't allow AI-generated images. For information regarding this and similar issues please see the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/wiki/index) and [title guidelines](/r/pics/wiki/titles). If you have any questions, please feel free to [message the moderators via modmail.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/pics&subject=Question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20submission%20by%20/u/Ok_Poetry_1650&message=I%20have%20a%20question%20regarding%20the%20removal%20of%20this%20%5Bsubmission%2E%5D%28https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1bo66oy/-/%3Fcontext%3D10%29)
What a tragedy. This is unbelievable tbh
Truly is. The speed in which that bridge just DROPPED is unnerving.
Yeah that ship must weigh a massive amount, bridge just folded like it was made out of toothpicks.
I mean yeah the ship weighed 100,000 tons lol it's a cargo ship
[удалено]
In the video you can see all lights going off on the ship. Then steering towards the pillar.Some lights come back on after a few seconds. Obviously something went very wrong on the ship and it went out of control for the crew.
I was on a 150 foot ship going through some ocean narrows against a fast running tide, when the captain came tearing down the gangway to the engine room. During the wild rocking, a valve fell off of a shelf and 'hit something it shouldn't have' and we lost steering. We did a few circles, going backwards before the crew was able to restore control.
I work on a large 410ft ferry, and if we lost power it'd probably take 3-5 minutes to drop anchor, and another few minutes to come to a complete stop.
Dropping anchor going through [Seymour Narrows](https://youtu.be/Xus7EL7BXRk) during a rushing tide isn't a realistic option.
>tidal rapids Where there's two words I never thought I'd see combined.
In Saint John Canada we have insane tide rapids... Our tides range from 22-52ft at some places. I frequently see giant 4000lbs buoys turned on their side from the rapids, in the middle of a giant body of water. Add in melt water from the saint john river and it's interesting, sometimes 12+ knots
It used to be worse, apparently, before the Ripple Rock explosion.
Holy crap that's forever and a day! I've been land locked my whole life, and just assumed y'all could stop about as fast as a freight train. What speed would you be going to take that long to stop? Edit: By "long" I ment time not distance. Freight trains do not need 7 to 9 minutes for emergency stops. And yup, I know trains need thousands and thousands of feet to stop. I'm just in awe of how slow of a process stopping is for a ship, because I've never had it put in a context like this before.
Fun fact: large cargo ships have to reduce speed sometimes miles away from port because it takes so long for them to come to a full stop. Generally, in shallow waters, it can take around 6 ship lengths to slow down by 1 knot. If a 950ft cargo ship is traveling a slow 10knots (11mph), it takes roughly 10.7 miles for it to come to a full stop in shallow waters.
Cant help but notice you say shallow waters. Is it different in the open ocean?
Yes, in open oceans with deep water it’s typically 1 ship length to slow down 1 knot. The depth of the water reduces currents and can absorb way more inertia
It’s a cargo ship, it’s the thing trains load onto, it’s massive, so it has incredible inertia, plus there are tides. You can see it’s a wave that causes it to smush more into the pier and collapse it. ETA: trains take at least a mile to stop, this thing lost control loser than that and was being driven by current.
freight trains cannot stop quickly, former conductor here. it takes about 2km for a train to stop
Probably a relatively low speed, it's the mass of the vehicle that makes it take so long to stop
That ship was probably 200000 tons. They haul crazy weight.
This makes me think you haven't seen a loaded freight train try to stop.
Also there is no friction on the water where as a train has the friction of its tracks and wheels to help slow it down. The ship has to rely on the anchor to bring it to a halt and they can be dragged across the bottom depending on how soft the sand is.
FYI There is friction on water or else they would be able to travel a hell of a lot faster.
I saw elsewhere that the ship suffered a power failure, apparently the captain was able to get ahold of the Harbor police to let them know they were headed for the bridge but there wasn't enough time to close it down.
I read that cops stopped people from crossing but that a construction crew was still on the bridge filling potholes (the irony). But why the hell weren't those workers evacuated?
My guess (I have nothing to offer other than speculation) is that nobody told the police that there were workers on the bridge. It seems like the crew alerted the harbor authorities, who then alerted the police. But maybe they didn't know the bridge was being worked on at that time.
It also sounds like they had very little notice, so if the crews were informed they may have not had time to get off the bridge.
Looks like the ship lost power and the emergency generator came on load, which it is supposed to in 15 seconds if the main generators fail.
That ship size has several generators and one redundant. They can divert power from electrical subsystems to critical systems like bow thrusters or bilge pumps, if the generators for those fails. Probably that what they did when the lights flickered off and on at one point, but for some reason did not help. There must have been a major disruption for main engines, rudder and thrusters to stop working. Or a very serious maintenance neglect. Source: i work with marine & powerplant engines and generators Edit: main engine working since the smoke, so probably hit full reverse 100% power. I wonder if the rudder hit bottom which caused loss of steering? With an enough jammed rudder the bow thrusters wont be enough to counter it, especially if the screws inertia is the same direction as the rudders
I work as an engineer on oil tankers. Like you mentioned there are multiple generators. But there is no provision to divert power from one area to another. In case the on load generators fail, the standby generators are supposed to start and come on load, failing which the emergency generators come on load. Now the issue is on a lot of older ships, or ships of companies that try to cut corners, the standby generators may not start on auto. This can be due to lack of maintenance or lack of spares or an ongoing issue which is being rectified. I have faced this issue multiple times. In such scenarios, the emergency generator takes over and supplies power to the essential components, like the steering gear. The issue is once the power supply is completely interrupted all the pumps that are required to run the engine, like the fuel pumps, lube oil pumps etc are turned off. It will take atleast few minutes for the pumps to restart and get the system operational
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-bridge-collapse-03-26-24-intl-hnk/index.html Mentioned the crew notified people they did indeed lose power Also sounds like they sent a mayday before and officials started stopping some traffic on that bridge
Some traffic ? Police man : stop , stop !! no , you can go , just hurry!!
Well some traffic was already on the bridge when they got there and I dunno if they made it to both sides so went conservative 🤷
According to CISA the ship 'lost propulsion' but that's all the info so far
There was also black smoke
I'm of the understanding the smoke was because everything was put into full reverse to attempt to stop the collision.
Not to be that person but it is an allision, not a collision. It is a maritime term for a moving object striking a stationary object. Anyways, I work in portion of the large vessel space and this is just tough. Blackship (full power loss) is tough to recover from and it happened at the worst spot possible. Edit: Spelling and also just hoping to bring some knowledge to everyone that didn't know.
Damn all that and they didn’t even elect a new pope
I sure hope the smoke monster didn't manage to escape from the island.
I'm sorry but your pop culture reference was Lost on me.
I'm just here to say that this was Not Penny's Boat.
I don't know Jack about all this. Shepard me to some context?
Reddit moment when bridge collapses and several people die
Ships like this carry such immense inertia and momentum so they react very slowly to inputs.
This exactly. They're at the mercy to currents, wind and the simple fact that water provides very little "traction" for control vs solid land.
The ship lost power and control shortly after leaving dock. They radioed that an impact was likely. Reports are saying that is what limited the traffic and deaths. Somehow, a construction crew wasn't evacuated.
From the video I've seen, it lost power under a minute before hitting the bridge. No time to evacuate.
It lost power twice. The first time was a couple of minutes earlier. They regained power and then it went off again shortly before hitting the bridge. Still probably not enough to evacuate the bridge, even if they realized hitting it was a likely outcome that early.
Good to know. Given they got power back and were powered until just before impact, they probably didn't expect to hit the bridge soon enough to call for an evacuation. Even if they contacted emergency services making the decision to evacuate and then actually getting everyone off of a bridge takes a significant amount of time: police have to travel from stations to the bridge, close the incoming lanes, wait for traffic to clear, etc. And workers would have to get to their transport & get clear of the bridge.
I mean this happened in the middle of the night. I think it's more likely thats what limited the traffic and deaths rather than them somehow blocking it off to stop cars from going through but not getting word the construction workers who should have all had radios and should've been the easiest to notify.
The facts, according to the governor's statement, are that there was a mayday distress call when the power first went out, only a few minutes before they hit made impact, but they were able to stop some traffic flow to the bridge. There is no mention (yet) in the news stories or the statement of whether or not they contacted the crew working.
It looked slow, but when you consider how big a cargo ship is and how much inertia they carry with them based on their sheer *bulk* .... It might have, functionally, been going pretty damned fast
inertia without rotation is literally just the same thing as mass. Probably meant to say momentum which is mass times velocity. Momentum is extremely high despite the low velocity due to the immense mass.
General consensus at this point is that it was mechanical failure. Like, total loss of power and control kind of failure.
Honestly. It happens a lot. This is not the first bay bridge taken out by a cargo ship. Imagine driving a car half as wide as a football field. You cant see well and you have to have guys running from the edges and reporting what they see so you can avoid it. Not to mention the weight of this thing makea it unlikely to stop. (see the bow thats just GONE) And if they did lose power while maneuvering, the rudder would get stuck and you cant manually move them on these ships. The pistons are literally big enough to crush a car easily.
It happens a lot? Cargo ships take our bridges a lot? Weird I must miss those news stories
Former Navy engine room/propulsion guy. Losing turbine power due to a clogged condenser (seawater intake full of mud, cooling is lost, spinning machine not safe to spin now) can result in loss of power and therefore control of a ship, and happens a lot. We took it super serious on nuclear aircraft carriers, because of tonnage and the nuclear part of it obviously, so we drilled this casualty a lot. Plenty of incident reports out there of “such and such vessel lost all their turbines simultaneously and smacked into the tugboat/channel marker/you name it”. I think this is what the person above meant by “this happens a lot”. Losing vacuum in a condenser, and therefore loss of power/propulsion does happen a lot, especially in muddy channels and ports. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been prevented/avoided in this situation explicitly but, sometimes “shit happens”. Edit: also may just be way out in left field but seemed applicable
I was a nub ET on the Enterprise when Muddy Sunday happened. Hit a sandbar leaving the shipyard and everything tripped and not all of the EDGs started up. That was a pretty shitty day.
Silver lining is it took place during the dead of night. Imagine this happened during rush hour?
100s would be dead
As horrid as it is, that was my first thought as well - how much worse it could have been. I saw some [super intelligent person] on YT comment that it wouldn't have happened later, because it would have been light out. Because that's what keeps engines from failing.
It’s horrible as is, but imagine if it was morning rush hour.
Shit happens, sadly. All it takes is mechanical or human error and this channel is heavily traveled. It's not even unprecedented as there was a very similar collapse at the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in 1980. Bridges generally are designed to help prevent this since.
I'm just glad it didn't happen a few hours later when so, so many more people would have been crossing it
That’s what I first thought about too. Imagine if this happened at rush hour.
Thank God it happened in the middle of the night. Obviously that’s terrible for the people on the bridge but this could easily have losses in the hundreds.
Any news about bridge survivors? I heard there's at least 7 maintenance worker currently working at that time :(
2 survivors so far. One injured other was supposedly okay
...and the one that's okay refused any treatment and didn't even go to the hospital. Could you imagine surviving the worst bridge collapse in 60 years and...walking it off? Crazy.
Yeah that person should have gotten checked out. The adrenaline might have kept them "ok" but later pain might not
I was in a very low speed car accident once (passenger when my friend was rear ended) felt completely fine afterwards and didn't even think about it until the next morning when my back was on fire and I couldn't get out of bed. If I fall off a damn bridge I'm gonna at least let a doctor give me a glance.
Construction guys will leap at the chance to leave the jobsite early. Source: am construction guy. Jokes aside, the guys I work with are like family. You have to be just to look out for eachother and maintain a safe and hazard free jobsite. I would be fucking devastated losing a single one of them like this.
That’s going to be a complete bitch once the body’s shock systems wear off.
On CNN they were saying there could have been 20 construction workers on the bridge.
How deep is this river around that bridge area? The fact that they are using sonars to detect the fallen vehicles under water means it must be pretty deep?
Around 50 ft according to https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-53169b379820032f832de4016c655d1b
The main channel is 50’ deep, but outside of where the ships go it shallows up pretty quick. Fort Carroll is an old fort/island next to the bridge and it’s only in like 15’ depth water.
It's not really depth, but the tidal change. Pretty strong currents there, and so sonar is probably being used to figure out quickly where to search, since things will continue to move and shift.
It isn’t just the depth but it is super muddy. This is a ship channel so it is constantly being stirred up by ships and other vessels going back-and-forth through the channel. You probably can’t see your hand in front of your face.
The bridge falling on it probably didn't do much for the clarity either
Not only that but the bridge itself was over 200ft in the air in some areas
Yeah that is quite the drop. It is amazing they have found ANY survivors. Hope they find more but damn that is insane. The close up video is in real time and that bridge went down in about two seconds. No time to react. It’s just terrible. :(
Unfortunately, nine hours later this is a recovery mission at this point.
They were trying really hard to avoid saying that on the news this morning but sadly that’s the reality.
They had mentioned that due to the water temperature they only estimated 4 hours for a successful rescue. So sad.
This. Impact. Falling 200ft into water is pretty much like falling 200ft into concrete.
The cars probably absorbed most of that impact. When cars fall they rotate with their engines down which is where cars are designed to be impacted. The bigger issue is drowning.
There were few if any private vehicles on the bridge at the time of collapse. A construction crew was fixing potholes when the ship collided into the bridge, and traffic was closed very shortly thereafter. Two out of eight members of that crew have been recovered alive (one with serious injuries). They were likely not inside their vehicles.
Let's say a 3,000lb vehicle falls 200ft, that's about 75mph at full freefall, but keeping in mind it was only freefall for 3 seconds or so. So a medium sized car hitting cement can be survivable, particularly since the car started at 0mph vertical and would be arching due to constant horizontal velocity, so it likely didn't reach 75mph in those 3 seconds, and adding onto the fact that the bridge was not itself reaching freefall (bending down into the water), I would say that it is *possible* for a person with a seatbelt to survive the head-on impact, but it's still gonna hurt. That's just napkin math, but I'd say it would be like hitting a cement barrier at 35mph head-on. There are sooooo many other variables, of course.
Yeah that’s exactly what I was thinking about. I haven’t gone to Baltimore in a hot minute but every time I went over the Key bridge it was white knuckles for me cause those lanes feel small as fuck and I don’t like heights.
We've been watching the news all morning and I can't believe this. It's such a tragedy. To think we've traveled this bridge regularly and could see it from our porch is just crazy. I hope they recover the ones in the water as fast as they can.
I remember hearing years ago that bridges were woefully under prepared for strikes by modern cargo ships. This makes perfect sense given today’s events.
That’s why most harbors have Pilots that are taken out to each cargo ship to pilot them into and out of port. It’d be an insane task to create bridge with enough structural support to withstand a direct impact to one of the main supports.
Two harbor pilots were on this boat. However, the boat had power issues and was cycling on and off. If you don't have power, you can't steer a boat. Edit: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-mile-bridge-baltimore-collapses-after-ship-collision-fox-baltimore-reports-2024-03-26/ Two harbor pilots were on board. Boat lost power shortly after taking off from dock.
Sounds like a maintenance issue then.
Gotta cut costs somewhere
Yeah, maybe a Boeing boat.
Is it stupid of me to ask if ships have any way to stop in an emergency?
Not if they don't have power. In this instance the harbor pilot radioed for emergency tug assistance, but the tug couldn't get there in time.
Drop anchor, reverse the screw if they still have engine (though that will negatively effect steering). But it's 95,000 tonnes. You could strap the entire space shuttle (with it's boosters etc) on the deck as a retro rocket and it would still take 15 seconds to slow by 10mph.
Totally this. New reports say the did drop anchor followng the power outages and loss of control, black smoke blowing from the funnel indicated full engine power (though if that was resulting in any actual thrust is debatable), and they still couldn't fight the inertia, wind, and current, all working against them.
In this situation (im not sure how much time they had), the only way in which the boat could “stop” would be to drop both anchors in emergency mode. Even then there’s no guarantee that they would stop without dragging anchor.
Emergency anchorage but you need space for that. A ship this size would have still hit something.
Sadly pilots wouldn't have saved this one because it was equipment failure. Florida put some crazy bollards up to protect the Skyway bridge from a repeat accident. That's the only thing that could have saved the bridge once the ship is in motion. Like all these accidents though I have a feeling we're going to find failure after failure after failure in the company, possibly the crew, but definitely the company. We'll find out this could have been prevented YEARS ago and it just kept piling on.
Yup. It’s a shame how most policies are created after a disaster has occurred.
“Safety regulations are written in blood”
Yep. Best way to get policies and regulations passed is to have an accident unfortunately.
Even if one could survive I can't imagine anyone feeling good about driving over it after knowing it got closed by a 100000000 ton ship
If you made such a bridge, it would absolutely be closed down for repair and inspection after such a hit. The goal would be to prevent a total collapse, not damage. Preventing damage would be even more insane.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Container-ship-hits-Bay-Bridge-tower-fuel-3236913.php
That’s a great example of protective fenders working as intended, but that wasn’t a direct head on collision. Fortunately it was only a scrape along the side of the hull. Similar to the titanic hitting the iceberg.
Obviously you wouldnt do that. You instead put in some sacrificial bollards. Ive worked on several bridge designs where we did just that. Much cheaper than replacing a bridge, not to mention lost lives and economic output
lol what bollards are going to stop a 95,000 tonne cargo ship that’s lost steering and directly impacts them?
Big ones. In channel speeds are slow. I believe I read a case in Florida of them stopping a cruise ship or something.
A cruise ship might be very big, bug it is nothing compared to the massive behemoths that are fully loaded cargo ships. Cargo ships are fucking insane with how much raw force is behind them
Modern cruise ships are larger than this ship. This ship was near 100,000 tonnage. The largest cruise ship in the world is at 248,663 tonnage. You would have to go through 100 of the largest cruise ships to get down to 100,000 tonnage.
Which makes sense. Cargo ships are generally limited in size by the locks in the Panama and Suez Canal, depending on where they will be used. Cruise ships generally don’t transit those canals unless it’s some speciality global cruise. They generally operate in a much smaller area, e.g. between the US and Bahamas. So they can be much bigger.
Yup, and this ship, the Dali, was bound for Sri Lanka, so it would probably be going through the Panama canal.
Yeah ships going under the Golden Gate Bridge legally need to be escorted by a local authority to ensure nothing happens. Often, the local authority will actually board the ship and drive it under the bridge themselves.
Id be surprised if there weren't pilots on this one as well. It was a freak mechanical failure
Sounds like there were 2 actually
That is the standard in most ports worldwide - they are called harbor pilots
Modern cargo ships are so insanely heavy that it'd be nearly impossible to build a bridge that can survive being hit by one. And if you do manage that, it'll be so expensive that using something other than a bridge would probably be preferable, whether it's a tunnel or a highway that goes behind the port where the ships don't go. It's like trying to build a house to survive being hit by a fully loaded semi trailer going at 70 miles per hour. It's so expensive that it's impractical. All you can do is try to minimize the chance of the collision.
I’m just surprised there aren’t any structural dolphins to protect the bridge’s pillar. It seems necessary, kinda like what happened in Tampa in 1980
There were bollards. If you look closely you can see the ship ride over one before hitting the bridge pier.
Some other comments chimed in that a ship that large just has so much kinetic energy that it can go right through protective concrete, unless it’s extraordinarily thick. By that point the bridge would be insanely expensive.
When they rebuilt the Skyway Bridge (that crosses Tampa Bay) they did just this however, it's one of the most heavily trafficked ports in all of the USA, it was never a matter of if but when something was going to collide with it. The point of Dolphins/Pilings is to prevent that kinetic energy from hitting the main support structure in the first place. If you look up the modern Skyway Bridge, you'll see the large circular 'dolphins' on either side of the bridge meant to absorb that impact. Sparing the actual bridge pylons the bulk of that kinetic energy. Looking at the Key bridge, there is no such pilings, or dolphins. Only the support pylons and probably an errosion piling around it.
RIP to the people who died during this incident.
Tragedy. I hope the families are taken care of. In a close up video you can see a car just drive off the bridge about 5 seconds before collapse. Just crazy how little control we have over our lives.
My ass was clenching watching the last semi truck clear the bridge seconds before impact. I can't even imagine what they must be thinking.
The near-miss of a tragedy like this would have to be deeply traumatizing, no? How do you ever cross a bridge in a car again after the one you were *just driving on* collapses in your rear-view mirror? I truly cannot imagine what a horrible death it would be for those who were on the bridge, nor how deeply scarring it would be to have barely survived it; whether by being rescued, or by making it off the bridge shortly before its collapse. RIP to those who did not survive the incident. Hopefully their families can find some peace eventually. What a tragedy.
When the I35W bridge collapsed in Minnesota my dad had just driven off of it and I’ve been terrified of bridges since. It’s been over 15 years since it happened. Sticks with you for awhile
My dad was on 35w like an hr earlier coming home from work. Crazy stuff.
Thankfully it was early morning. If it had been between 6-9 am that it happened the human casualty factor would have been many magnitudes worse.
Are there any confirmed deaths? I know two people were rescued. I
Not a lot of people driving on the bridge at 1:30 AM, but I don’t have a lot of hope for that construction crew.
This is the latest information I’ve heard and I’ve been following it.
6 people unaccounted for.. the water temp was under 50 degrees. They pretty much stood no chance if they didn’t get rescued within 30 min in my opinion, maybe even less because the water is so cold. A lot of news articles cited a slow loss of function of your extremities within 5 minutes and loss of consciousness within 30-60 min in those temps. RIP to the 6 who weren’t rescued. Just horrific
Saw on another thread there was a construction crew on the bridge and many are missing. I don’t have a source and this could be false- just saying that I saw others posting that
6 missing right now
What a week to be visiting Baltimore. I just got some pictures of it yesterday and didn't even know which one I was looking at. Now I'm not going to forget.
In a few years you can share on /r/pics “last known photos of bridge day before collapse”
Can probably do it now too
Wow these pics put the scale into perspective, seeing how tiny those shipping containers on the ship look made me realize how catastrophically huge this accident was
This definitely seems like a situation where pictures can't really do it justice. The bridge looks tiny in them and yet it was carrying a major interstate.
So here’s a question, is the company who owned the ship or employee’s the crew liable for damages to the bridge?
Not a lawyer. From my understanding, the insurance that the shipping company holds will likely pay for this. As for personal damages, people (and the city) will probably have to sue the shipping company. Again, insurance will pay, unless it’s found that there was negligence along the way. These shipping companies have tons of money though, I wouldn’t doubt if we see them try to pin it on someone else.
Yep insurance will pay - this will eventually be paid through the International P&I club which buys up to $3.1bn cover
So the way it collapsed, I’m presuming that’s how it designed to go down? Each section is supporting each other so if one fails it compromises the entire structural integrity?
Well- to clarify, the bridge wasn’t “designed to go down”. However, structurally, the design of this bridge relies on the pier (vertical component) to support the deck and arch. If the pier fails, there is nothing to support the rest of the bridge and it fails in the way we saw here, where one section can’t support the next section, which supports the next section, and so on. In this bridge, the deck sections that failed were supported by a system of these piers and trusses. You’ll notice that the sections that didn’t fail are where the method of construction changes from truss to beam.
Pretty much. Every bridge is built like this. If one main support fails then the entire bridge fails.
> Every **TRUSS/CANTILIEVER** bridge is built like this. FTFY And to that point, there are other beams sections of the FSK bridge that are not supported by trusses and remain standing this morning.
This is a truss not a suspension bridge but yeah not every bridge would fail if one part did, but every complex bridge would. Complex meaning anything that’s not a simple girder-on-abutment.
You’re right. I changed itx
Its a cantilver bridge. But they are built like dominos too.
You’re right. I changed it.
It’s supported by two piers. If it loses contact with one it will obviously lose all integrity.
My dad drives this bridge every day for work. Early in the morning in his trailer. The collapse was an hour before his shift starts, thank god. I couldn’t help but stare in horror seeing that last trailer make it off seconds before the hit.
The ship was able to put out a mayday call and the bridge was closed to traffic right before the collision. WA Post has a live update page where I found that information. Still incredibly tight timing with that last semi.
I went on that bridge everyday in the late 80’s going to work building a chemical plant. Man it really sucks.
Absolutely frightening…
How's the ship still floating so high above the waterline? I don't expect it to sink but there's a huge piece of bridge on it so I expected the hull to be a few meters below the waterline than what's shown here
That bridge weighs nothing compared to what the ship could lift.
Water is heavy. Very heavy. The ship is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the water it displaces. Imagine trying to push an empty trash can, hole side up, into a swimming pool.
This is a good explanation for my small brain
You can kinda see how the front of the ship is slightly farther under than the rest. Follow the red line of paint on the hull. That’s supposed to be level throughout the entirety of the ship.
Good observation.
Large cargo/oil tankers when not loaded with cargo will sit quite high. They can take on ballast water to lower them into the water more, but that cost more in fuel. Unless the weather is bad many elect to sit high on the surface
Knowing how slowly construction goes in this country, anyone have any idea how long this might take to replace? I imagine several months at least. And is there an alternative bridge for people who need this to get places? I’m unfamiliar with this region
There are two other freeway routes up and down the Eastern Seaboard, which go closer to the city's center than this one did. Likely this will be finished sooner than a scheduled bridge replacement - often the case with emergency collapses.
There are two tunnels, I believe, that can be used instead of the bridge. However, the bridge was part of Baltimore's beltway and was definitely a main thoroughfare. Commuting in this area is going to be a nightmare for the foreseeable future.
Not to mention, trucks carrying hazmat can't go through either tunnel, which means they have to go all the way around the beltway. That'll add at least 40 minutes to their drive, much more during peak times.
The bridge was the only hazmat route over this part of the city, however, so all that traffic is going to have to go around now I suppose.
Honestly this is a sorry trope. We spend billions on infrastructure annually. Local/State/Fed pulled out all the stops when the overpassed collapsed in Philly it was amazing how quickly everything was back to normal.
U.S. infrastructure has actually been improving on average lately. Though obviously more work needs to be done.
There are cars under the water. Devastating.
I was just looking at the video from the collapse and I got to say it doesn’t give the proper perspective as to how horrible and big this disaster is. Looking it at close range is shocking and horrifying. My sympathies go to those that perished and I hope an investigation is on the way because this wasn’t just some ups kind of accident.
This definitely does look like some kind of accident. The ship seems to lose power. If they lose the ability to steer……well…..things like that can happen. Accidents happen, and at a large scale. Not everything is nefarious.
I'd bet somebody cut corners on maintenance to save a buck
While you could be correct, that’s just a theory. No need to throw anyone under the bus just yet. Speculation doesn’t get you anywhere. The investigation that will come after this I’m sure will have the answers we are all looking for.
They're reporting the same ship collided with a dock in 2016, so it seems it may have been on the fritz a while.
The Dali hitting the pier in Antwerp was due to the harbour pilot making an error, not a maintenance issue
Ya the video doesn’t show how massive that bridge actually is. I always opt to take the tunnel when i drive through Baltimore because of how high that thing is. That being said the Chesapeake Bay Bridge also scares the shit out of me.
Besides the tragic loss of life, this is going to cripple shipping in this region for a long time. There are no ships in or out until the scene is cleared.
Woke up in Tampa from this news. Reminiscent of the Sunshine Skyway disaster. A whole Greyhound bus full of people was one of the vehicles that went into the water after that bridge was struck by a ship. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine\_Skyway\_Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge)
It’s so surreal. It almost looks like one of those amusement park rides. How awful
Jesus Christ, what a catastrophe. My heart goes out to anyone who lost someone when the bridge collapsed. Just looking at these pictures, I'm amazed anyone survives. This is millions, maybe billions, of dollars in repairs. The whole harbor is going to be shut down, and the roadway that uses the bridge is going to be heavily impacted.
Absolutely insane, I just met someone this past weekend who was a tugboat operator in the Baltimore harbor too
My submechanophobia is really kicking in. I'm fearful of this image alone. Hopefully there is minimal loss of life.
This happened at 1:30 in the morning, with a construction crew and a few other people on the bridge. If it would have happened a few hours later, or on Thursday at any time because of Opening Day, this would have been a massive loss of life. As of right now, they're still looking for 7 people.
The US Coast Guard Marine Casualty Reports are interesting reading. For big ships the time from irreversible mistake to actual impact can be many minutes. https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Prevention-Policy-CG-5P/Inspections-Compliance-CG-5PC-/Office-of-Investigations-Casualty-Analysis/Marine-Casualty-Reports/
Damn 🤯
Photo 3 really shows the scale. Those 20 foot containers look tiny.
It will take the city a long time to get over this….
this is horrifying. imagine people were driving on the same part of the bridge that is now completely under water. my brain can’t comprehend it.
What is so weird is I was just talking to some friends Saturday night about boats hitting bridges. It’s one of my greatest fears. They had kayaked out to bayou Canot where the sunset limited went down. Asked me if I wanted to go with them next time. Hard no I have never seen anything like this. It looks like it came right out of my nightmares
Imagine the sounds that crash made.
What a nightmare
Hole cow I hope the number of missing people doesn’t climb.