A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers were searching for survivors.
    • Sonori@beehaw.org
      7·
      8 months ago

      This actually happens a lot more frequently than one might think. Offhand in the US alone beyond the Sunshine Skyway and Baltimore Key collapses in the last half century we’ve seen the I-40, Queen Isabella Causeway, and Bayou Canot passenger rail collapses after a ship or barge collision.

      The closest parrel so far though might be the Tazman bridge collapse in Hobart, Australia, as that also involved a oceangoing freighter impacting a intracity bridge at night.

      The main similarity to Sunshine Skyway here would be that it appears the bridge was built at the same time and from the same template. Overall though, when a building sized chunk of steel designed to crash though walls of water bigger than it is meets a spindly structure designed to primarily withstand wind and snow the results tend to end badly.

      That’s why modern post-skyway dolphins or bartier islands are so important, but they’re expensive and at a time when we have generally failed to fund even basic preventative maintenance it’s hard to find the funds for expensive systems that may never be used. After all, the bridge has been fine for decades without, right?

  • jarfil@beehaw.org
    3·
    8 months ago

    construction crew filling potholes on the bridge

    “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers.”

    Well, that… sounds more like a joke: “we had cones, but the ship still struck them” 🙄

    On a more serious note, there are several questions as to how could this end up happening. Some say the ship had its steering damaged in Antwerp some years ago, some float other rumors. The lead of the transport safety commission seemed to be more on point: there is a lot to analyze, they may say more tomorrow, and all of it will take a lot of time anyway.

    • tangentism@beehaw.org
      1·
      8 months ago

      The video shows the ship losing power & all it’s lights going out prior to hitting the bridge.

      Apparently, it’s not the first time it’s collided with something though.

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
        2·
        8 months ago

        EDIT: this other video analysis shows it better, https://youtu.be/N39w6aQFKSQ

        • T-4 min: loses power, going at 8.7 KN, starts drifting off course
        • T-3 min: regains power, starts slowing down
        • T-0: impacts bridge, at 1.5 KN

        The video shows the ship losing power & all it’s lights going out prior to hitting the bridge.

        Not the video I’ve seen:

        Before crash

        Bridge falls onto ship

        After crash

        All lights on the ship seem to be on, except for the ones that… well, stop being attached to the ship.