Key Bridge in Baltimore collapses after being hit by a container ship

How has your own comment helped?

If it was daytime the ship's captain would most likely have seen the issue and changed course.

Hence the "peak" comment is nonsensical.

Along with the rest of the post as you (and I) have nothing to go on except a bit of grainy video.

Looks like they saw the issue happening and bridge had been closed and just some emergency vehicles were on the bridge.

I was on that bridge last September. Great piece of engineering. Friends live in Baltimore - but they'd only use the bridge if going on a recreation trip.

It has nothing to do with the captain, when ships are entering or exiting ports they have local pilots on board who direct the course as local knowledge is required for all ports. There were 2 pilots on board so either they both fucked up or there was a serious engine/steering issue.

Whoosh.

Not an expert, but I'm hearing from others talking about this that container ships have ballooned in size since then. The largest container ship in '72 apparently could hold 3,000 40ft containers, whilst the Dali takes 10,000.

If watching stuff like from Seconds from Disaster has thought me anything, it'll be a combination of the following:

- There will have been multiple safety issues with the boat's electrical systems which caused the power, and presumably navigation / steering gear, failure. (The lights go out twice as it's approaching) With redundancies either not working or not installed to save money.

- The crew or pilot will have been somehow deficient. Not able to read radar distances properly or something.

- The bridge could've been made stronger with the addition of a 5c washer on every bolt or something like that. This was not done to save money.

- At some point the city would've been required by law to increase collision protection around the pillars for the central spans but hadn't done it, and the law hadn't been enforced cos the relevant body is massively underfunded.

It's a major incident with mass causalities and with pretty serious ramifications going forward.

State of emergency has been declared.

The would have been designed to withstand one of the supports being hit so questions have to be asked about what preventative measures were in place.

It has nothing on the bridge collapse in Genoa but it's obviously a blessing the time it happened at. Could have been much worse if it were 07:30.

He didnt. The bill and funding was passed by the current government

Changing course on a ship with no power, do you think the captain should have used prayer and/or magic?

Power seems to fail twice in the few minutes as the ship approaches the bridge (lights go out). Given the rudder on that ship is presumably the size of a small building, the movement is electrically or hydraulically assisted. So it needs power to work.

Also the ship then seems to steer towards the span between the two power failures which would suggest the rudder might have gotten jammed anyway.

And the bridge will need to be rebuilt from scratch after all that cleared

If you look at the track on Marine traffic you can see it drifting to starboard as it approaches the bridge, it also slows a bit, so the theory of it losing power is plausible.

Ah would you lay off. No one is saying it's not a tragedy. When I heard read mass casualty I was thinking a lot more than twenty.

As you said "happy" isn't really the term. Lets go with satisfies the definition.

According to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482373/ a mass casualty incident is: "A mass casualty incident (MCI) is an incident where the number of patients exceeds the amount of healthcare resources available. This number varies widely across the country, but is typically greater than 10 patients."

So to be honest I was looking at it in terms of deaths but that's not that it is, I wouldn't have thought a cities medical services wouldn't be able to handle the numbers involved. Having said that it's not twenty injuries presenting to a hospital so given the added strain from the obvious logistical constraints it's another matter however that brings more than medical into it.

You'd think with it being pointed out a long time ago that the USA's infrastructure was crumbling that either political party would propose a gigantic public works program to fix the issues there would be no negative to this it would create jobs for the abandoned industrial heartlands and industrial workers.

If Trump had any sense at all it should have been the first thing he proposed as president it would have had no negative impacts for him at all particularly seeing a people of the rust belt and the abandoned working classes were the people e was supposed to be representing it would have been a win win for him and the country.

whoever looks at this story and focuses on whether it qualifies as a mass casualty event or not has underlying issues to resolve

Also the bridge cannot be 'repaired' (too dangerous apparently). It will need to be rebuilt from scratch - massive disruption to transport and trade in the region.

As others have said on the thread, anyone visiting the US and spending time there often notices the decaying infrastructure. It's bad in the east coast cities and worse in the mid-west.

We often joke about the US being a 3rd world country wearing a Gucci belt. It's perhaps not the best analogy, but incidents such as this one? Hammer home the disparity apparent that the richest country in the world and it's infrastructure seems to have.

From railway derailments, bridge collapses, many state & local govt funded roads & infrastructure creaking from age, & lack of maintenance. This latest collapse is a symptom of disjointed and chaotic funding and responsibilities.

On the topic of this collapse, yes it was initiated by the collision of a ship. Yet, no mitigation or protection was in place around the piers, and the piers in a busy shipping lane are an immediately obvious point of failure. I don't know what the weight of the ship involved was, but imagine 40000 tons moving at 8/9 knots impacting the pier of a cantilevered bridge is a recipe for disaster.

My thoughts are with the victims and I hope that if nothing else? This latest collapse focuses minds and funding on US infrastructure issues.

imagine if this happened in ireland, it would be the story of the year

While a ship strike caused the collapse there is no denying the atrocious state of infrastructure in America. After the Oroville incident there was a paper released stating that some insane number of dams are in poor condition. I believe something like 200 have collapsed since 200. Bridges, roads and railyways are in the same sorry state.

I was just about to say the same thing. There’s very little to repair, what remains will have to dismantled and they’ll have to start from scratch.

15,000 people employed at the port of Baltimore aren’t going to have much work for a while.

I can't see any excuse for the US's infrastructure maintainace issues.

They spend twice as much on law and order than on welfare. If they want to reduce spending in some areas to increase the available budget for infrastructure maintainance, I can make a suggestion.

That said, it looks more likely to be a ship maintainance issue than anything to do with the bridge.