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Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses

Reports are saying there was a crew on the deck working on the concrete surface.

For those of you reading this, remember that those workers are putting themselves into position that can become quite dangerous.

Slow down when driving in a construction zone. Always.
 
That is nightmare level scary. So horrible.
 
mikeg_74 said:
I saw this and the container ship sailed straight into the column and didn't try to avoid it. I wonder if someone feel asleep bc I would hate to think it was deliberate.
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I wonder if there were Harbor Pilots on the ship at the time of the accident as that article in the OG post seems to mention "Pilots" and not "Captain"

The cause of the incident is yet to be determined, according to a statement from Dali’s owners and managers. Two pilots were aboard the ship and they, as well as all 22 Indian crew members, have “been accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries.”
 
it's so crazy that is all it took to bring the bridge down.
Hope everyone is found safe.
 
Went over that bridge many times in years past. Just stunned by what i saw. Need to find out what was wrong on that ship. What they say today may well be correct, but an investigation will confirm things. Redundancies are built into most of these ships to prevent issues like this. That said the trip of bridge may have just made a bad situation even worse.

Here’s hoping all are accounted for with no loss of life.
 
Iceman! said:
I wonder if there were Harbor Pilots on the ship at the time of the accident as that article in the OG post seems to mention "Pilots" and not "Captain"

The cause of the incident is yet to be determined, according to a statement from Dali’s owners and managers. Two pilots were aboard the ship and they, as well as all 22 Indian crew members, have “been accounted for and there are no reports of any injuries.”
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That’s usually how it works right? The harbor pilots get the ship out and then they get off board and let captain take over
 
It just folded up so fast
 
BuckNasty said:
That’s usually how it works right? The harbor pilots get the ship out and then they get off board and let captain take over
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I mean usually. If you're an insurance company covering the ship, don't you want a Harbor Pilot to steer the ship out of the Harbor to avoid what just happened?
Almost every "Mighty Ship" show I watch shows a Harbor Pilot getting a ship in and out of a tight harbor.
 
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PatsFan said:
it's so crazy that is all it took to bring the bridge down.
Hope everyone is found safe.
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To be fair, that is a massive ship weighing who knows how much being fully loaded. It’s just simply not practical to design for that level of impact.
 
that video is so scary. I can't get over how fast the whole bridge went down.
 
Scooby45 said:
To be fair, that is a massive ship weighing who knows how much being fully loaded. It’s just simply not practical to design for that level of impact.
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That ship was massive for sure. Also that is a shipping channel so it is insanely deep. I hope some of the people in those cars survived
 
Slowmo said:
that video is so scary. I can't get over how fast the whole bridge went down.
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Imagine how much bigger ships have gotten since the bridge was built in 1977.
The bridge is no match for a ship that size.

Shipping freight was already being moving to the West Coast because of what is going on in the Red Sea and lower water levels at the Panama Canal.
Imagine how much more shipping is going to the West Coast now.
I believe Baltimore was a big Car port for European Cars to load off from.
Be interesting to read how busier the other East Coast ports get and can they even handle the traffic?
 
Absolutely insane. How in the world does that happen with todays electronics. Crazy. Hope everyone is ok but I'm not optimistic
 
The bridge is 47 years old. Who knows when it was last inspected 'underneath' I understand we are repairing the roadway, but what about the infrastructure of the bridge itself. It's approximately 50 feet of water in the channel where the bridge collapsed. Hoping everyone got out of their vehicles somehow. Plus the water temperature was also 47*. Hypothermia will set in real quick at that temp.
 
Iceman! said:
Imagine how much bigger ships have gotten since the bridge was built in 1977.
The bridge is no match for a ship that size.

Shipping freight was already being moving to the West Coast because of what is going on in the Red Sea and lower water levels at the Panama Canal.
Imagine how much more shipping is going to the West Coast now.
I believe Baltimore was a big Car port for European Cars to load off from.
Be interesting to read how busier the other East Coast ports get and can they even handle the traffic?
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You are correct. Not to mention the cruise ships that come in/out of Baltimore :eek:
 
Had to be a massive machinery/steering gear/electronics failure like a total breakdown of control. If was of course for s long time to reach the spot where it got the bridge. Not clear if was unable to stop — these things need some room, or if that control was also damaged.

I still go back to the thoughts on redundancy. There are (or at least i thought there were) back up safety plans/controls.
 
golfinnut said:
The bridge is 47 years old. Who knows when it was last inspected 'underneath'
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Even our county inspects every bridge (span over 10') annually. I'm sure a bridge like this has many annual inspections...
The Morrow Bridge over I71 in sw Ohio was replaced a decade ago. The bridge before that opened in 1965.
 
JW Smoove said:
Had to be a massive machinery/steering gear/electronics failure like a total breakdown of control. If was of course for s long time to reach the spot where it got the bridge. Not clear if was unable to stop — these things need some room, or if that control was also damaged.

I still go back to the thoughts on redundancy. There are (or at least i thought there were) back up safety plans/controls.
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In the side profile video you can see it completely lost power before it hit the bridge
 
One of my brothers good friends owns the construction company that was doing work on the bridge. Apparently it was the first night of work for the crew. His crew made it out safe but another was not as fortunate. They did pull 2 people out alive so far. One in critical one somehow unscathed. Very scary
 
Thats definitely one of the crazier things ive seen lately.
 
Went over that bridge many times coming out of the DMV until I decided to go the tunnel route to avoid some traffic. Quite the scary thought. We go over a large bridge on Route 1 from Boston to the North Shore to arrive at my parents' house. They have massive shields protecting the concrete pillars. I am not sure I saw any on the Key Bridge but I am also not sure they would prevent the impact of such a large ship. I believe the newer one in Tampa has them as well because of the tragedy from 1980.
 
terrible
 
JW Smoove said:
Had to be a massive machinery/steering gear/electronics failure like a total breakdown of control. If was of course for s long time to reach the spot where it got the bridge. Not clear if was unable to stop — these things need some room, or if that control was also damaged.

I still go back to the thoughts on redundancy. There are (or at least i thought there were) back up safety plans/controls.
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You Engineers, always looking for redundancies. :)

I wonder what, if any, are the disaster plans?
Certainly someone has brought up this possible scenario up and a plan has been draft in case a ship hit a pillar.
 
Here is a good slowed down timeline of it. You can see the power loss twice & visible smoke

 
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