Baltimore Bridge Collapse: For Those Wondering How This Happened, Here It Is ... (X image@zaid_yousafzsi)After a cargo vessel crashed on it, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland has collapsed. Reportedly, six workers filling the potholes on the road were presumed dead after they went missing after the bridge collapsed and rescue workers could not find them. It may not be wrong to say that a great disaster was averted, as the bridge is one of the busiest routes of Baltimore city on the East Coast of the United States. The Bridge carried over 12 million commercial and passenger vehicles in 2023.
What happened in Baltimore:
Around 1:30 am on Tuesday, a cargo vessel named Dali collided with one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River immediately, taking down vehicles and six road workers on it. The Singapore-flagged, 300 meters long left Baltimore at 1:00 am and was heading to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was supposed to reach its destination on April 22.
According to Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland Transportation Secretary, the local pilots were guiding the ship at the time of the accident and not the crew members. The pilots are trained to avoid accidents like the one that happened.
According to media report, the vessel “lost propulsion” as it was leaving the port. The crew members notified Maryland officials they had lost control of the vessel. As per Clay Diamond, executive director of American Pilots’ Association, the ship faced “complete blackout” approximately around 1:20 am. He said the minutes before the ship reached the bridge, it faced a complete black out, which meant that the ship lost complete engine and electrical power, as quoted by CNN.
Diamond said, despite not recovering its main power source, Diamond said that the diesel backup generator of the ship activated, and thereby reinstating the electrical systems. He said the pilot immediately ordered to keep the ship from turning right and ordered the port anchor to be dropped. The pilot also connected with the dispatch office to get the bridge shut down. Diamond told New York Post that one of the pilots did everything he could have done to avoid the accident.
Reportedly, there were eight people on the bridge at the time of collision. Two people were rescued, which one taken to hospital. He was later released. Other six people, who were part of the construction crew filling the potholes on the bridge. According to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the six, two are from Guatemala. Others are from Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador.
US President Joe Biden said there was no evidence that suggested the accident to be a deliberate act. Maryland transport authorities said that traffic was suspended until further notice. Undoubtedly, shutting down of the ship traffic is going to create huge logistic mishap at least for months, if not for years. The port of Baltimore is one of the busiest US ports while taking both foreign cargo handled and foreign cargo value. It is directly responsible for more than 15,000 jobs. It also supports more than 140,000 more.