Key Baltimore bridge collapses after collision

Oops, sorry citygator, I didn't see your post.

Sorry for the language by the videographer. Several workers were on the bridge, and several cars dropped into the river. This is nuts!

 

This is terrible. Unbelievable to watch.

 

looked like the ship headed straight to the pylon. 2:40 am. Glad it was not during rush hour—-

 

Sounds like the ship had been losing power intermittently. Yikes

 

Video this morning showed the shop go dark shortly before getting to the bridge. I would guess the ship lost power or the ability to steer…

Crazy to watch!

 

With potential for total collapse upon a strike for a major thoroughfare one would think there would be some sort of protective device against collision? I know it's a thing to have dolphins in some ports. Is that a thing?

 

unbelievable on so many levels. the lives, the massiveness of the collapse, the traffic nightmare for how long ... more than 30,000 vehicles cross it a day.

 

Damn! Tragic loss of life and as mentioned a total cluster for local traffic until that bridge is replaced.

 

Per CNN this same ship was involved in an incident in Belgium in 2016.
They didn't go into details.

 

Not only the bridge traffic having to re route but Baltimore is a very busy port. Not familiar with that area, but no ship traffic for a while either. Damn lucky this did not happen at rush hour.

 

How does a boat hit a bridge like that?

 

Yes, they put a local pilot on board to guide them in to port and to guide them back out to sea. I assume inspections are done. If that vessel kept losing power- wtf regarding it being seaworthy?

 

Yeah, the Skyway looks like one of the most protected bridges I've seen with giant round concrete columns and aprons spaced out to not allow ships near the supports. even though it seems unlikely it could happen twice to the same bridge ... but other bridges that are just as susceptible don't get any upgrades.

 

Yep, under no power the ship was going to miss the bridge, then you see the puff of black smoke and when it regains power they steered that ship right into the pylon.

 

I believe that bridge was built in 77. Obviously I'm not an engineer but I wonder how a bridge that old and of that design can be expected to take a direct hit all these years later. Seems like there are so many variables that the most sure proof method of protection would be barriers preventing any hit altogether.

 

This. How the original Tampa bridge was hit almost 45 years ago and other huge spanning/suspension bridges haven't had to have some sort of mandatory pilons over the years like this protecting their supports is crazy. It's like they just don't pay attention with all of the design and safety aspects that are in use now. It's like they just assume it'll be fine.

If this would have happened at rush hour or even in the daytime, this would have been catastrophic. It is still horrible that these people had to go through this.