USA Bridge Collapse

The Baltimore Bridge has been hit by a container ship and has collapsed.
It is a !.6 mile long 4 lane bridge. There were vehicles and 20 workers on the bridge, but not rush hour as it was about 1 in the morning.
Awful.

Bloody sat navs eh?
Where was his bridge height map ffs.:roll_eyes:
:joy:

Not funny guy, looking at the strong possibility here that multiple deaths will soon be confirmedā€¦

Thereā€™ll no doubt be a pilot and captain looking for a job.
Any ship in port will be trapped there, no ships will be able to enter the port. That will have massive direct and indirect impact on local workers.
Nothing will be entering or leaving, until the bridge wreckage can be removed.
Hopefully, happening at sparrowā€™s, there are no fatalities.
Itā€™s going to be an expensive, insurance claim.

@Winseerā€¦ Get off yer high ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  horseā€¦ā€˜ā€˜guyā€™ā€™
:roll_eyes:
I will decide what I think is funny mate.
2 wordsā€¦ .(clue second word is off)
:roll_eyes:

Never heard of dark humour, Windseer?
Robroy, I think the expression youā€™re looking for is ā€œTwo words, three effs.ā€ :innocent:

Well the Captain is always the ultimate person responsible for his ship and, in my experience, is always on the bridge when a Pilot is in control, though rarely I would think overrules him.

But unless things have changed drastically since my time at sea, 60 odd years ago, there is a lowly crewman actually on the wheel. So any one of those 3 could have made a mistake or, not beyond the bounds of possibility, deliberately diverted for some unspeakable reason.

Ships as large as this do turn very slowly so a deliberate action is highly unlikely. I am not familiar with this port so donā€™t know if there were tugs invloved to add to the mix.

But a very big deal to be sorted out later once the more immediate task of rescue is completed.

Just got this from an American driversā€™ site, thankfully it was 1am so not much traffic but I did see a couple of artic drivers having a lucky escape by passing the point of impact just before the collision.

One report says two pilots and the captain on the bridge.
No sign of tugs (doesnā€™t mean none though) on the videos/pictures.
Only 2mph winds now, and no big waves so guessing no strong winds then either.
-1 air temp and 10deg C water temp. Not survivable for long.

The ship is the Dali.
300m long, 48m beam. 95,000 tons gross. Built 2015.

Sudden steering/rudder failure. ? Those ships canā€™t stop quickly.

1 Like

Just imagine the guy who was steering the ship when he heard the tremendous bang and looked out to see a effin great bridge just collapsing around him.
Youā€™ve got to feel a bit for him.

Iā€™ve always been a ā€˜glass half fullā€™ type of guy, sure itā€™s bad enough, but Iā€™d be thinking how much worse it could have been,.especially if it had been a busier period, like a ā€˜rush hourā€™.

2 Likes

A Singapore-based shipping expert who has sailed cargo ships through Baltimoreā€™s port many times has been speaking with the BBC.

ā€œThe vessel had just departed from berth and made a turn before hitting the bridgeā€.

Having seen the footage, he has said there were a few possible causes:

  1. Main engine failure
  2. Steering failure
  3. Generator blackout
  4. Possibility of pilot/human error

ā€œItā€™s an unusual turn. Before a ship departs, we are supposed to carry out all the checks on all elements of the vessel before it departs. Itā€™s part of the departure checklist. So, if everything was done, something was obviously overlooked,ā€ he says, speaking on the basis of anonymity.

ā€œThese ships are so huge that even if the speed is slow, the momentum would be huge,ā€ he adds.

ā€˜No indication this was terrorismā€™ - fire chief

ā€œThere is absolutely no indication this is terrorism,ā€ the fire chief says, on the ship crashing into the bridge in Baltimore.

He adds that there is no indication this was intentional.

All above from the BBC link already posted.

So far 2 recovered from water. Search and rescue continuing.

TruckNet CSI springs into actionā€¦

1 Like

Spardo
Assuming it wasnā€™t a height v bridge issue Insufficient steerage way v an ebb tide ?.

A video shows the shipā€™s navigation lights switch off twice just before the collision.A few sections of the bridge sections collapsed with 2 sections resting on the shipā€™s bow.Thatā€™s going to be a hell of a job to clear up.It happened about 0130 so the 6 lane road was not as busy as it could have been.There were 2 pilots and the shipā€™s master in the wheelhouse.At first sight it would appear to be technical failure but my qualifications to judge will be equal to most others on this forum.

From BBC R4 news within the past hour: Apparently the ship lost power, witnesses have said its lights all went out together, the skipper got off a Mayday call which allowed those on land to stop traffic going onto the bridge, otherwise there would have been a far larger number of casualties.

Watch the video in the article, and youā€™ll notice that the lights donā€™t go out ruling out #3 and the tide/current was running towards the camera, ruling out a strong drift to one side at the critical moment (ruling out 2) and was already on course to pass under the centre of the bridge, so begs the question ā€œWhy steer at all?ā€

If the engine had failed, then the ship would have been carried on the current (towards the camera) or with the tide (towards or receding from the camera)

With all the other ā€œInfrastructure disastersā€ that have been going on around the USA since the lockdown - I can only say that
it is unlikely to be a coincidence, especially when the authorities IMMEDIATELY rule out ā€œTerrorist Actionā€ despite having not investigated to rule any such thing out at presentā€¦

Plenty of video footage embedded in articleā€¦
Mods: Why not bring back embedded video here so we donā€™t have to link an entire article from outside when posting?

Nevermind Trucknet CSI-Carryfast and Winseer have got it covered! :face_with_monocle: :yawning_face:

1 Like

Yepā€¦
Carryfast is boking a flight as we speak, to go out there to be a consultant.
And Winseer is hiding in his underneath the stairs cupboardā€¦cos he thinks heā€™ll get the blame.:joy:

1 Like

So youā€™re already thinking it is a cover up for summat, and you think the US would want to deny a terrorist attack, despite the political capital they could make from that?
Seriously?

And where are the ā€œvictoriousā€ terrorists? Be they IS/Al-Queda/Hamas/Hezbollah/Mossad/ The whole state of Iran/ or Uncle Tom KKK Cobbly and all, the Trump-Supporting-Government-hating-'dumb-Redneck-F-tards , amongst all of this?

Conspicuous by their absence, yet we all know these characters are all desperate to claim ā€œvictory over the infidelā€, why would they not be crowing and firing AK47s (or Colt assault rifles for their domestic knobbos) into the air on internet vids?

So no, not a terrorist attack.

What ā€œVictorious Terroristsā€ like Proxy Blame Takers last week in the Russian Massacre?

These days - you donā€™t take ā€œinformationā€ at face value any longer.
If the ā€œopticā€ of mainstream media leads people to look one way, then you really should be looking at what youā€™re being distracted from elsewhereā€¦

Putin has seen right through it, but thought wrongly that the US Proxies ā€œIsisā€ dare not attack Russia in plain sight, especially after the USA announced that this attack was inbound beforehandā€¦

Isis were necessary for the Russian attack because the West and NATO doesnā€™t target civiliansā€¦
Likewise, around the US the attacks are against mainstream infrastructure, especially in working class areas that donā€™t cause collateral damage to rich peopleā€™s real estate, nor their high paying jobs they might hold.

The lead-up to this bridge collapse is very suspicious to say the least, including as to why the vessel veered INTO the Key post that the bridge could not stand if damagedā€¦ There was zero damage redundancy the article saidā€¦
On top of the bridge, one could compare the work going on to ā€œroutine overnight maintenenceā€ like one might see on the Dartford Crossing, with 3 lanes out of 4 closed down for the works going onā€¦
At least one ā€œSemi Truckā€ (C+E Artic to us Brits) went into the river, presumably as part of the ā€œworks teamā€ upon the bridge prior to the collapse.

The lights are seen in some clips flicking on and off, possibly as a ā€œwarning of imminent collisionā€ to those on the bridgeā€¦
So much for there being a ā€œPower Failureā€ prior to the veer off-courseā€¦
ā€¦And what was all that black smoke coming out of the funnel about hmm?

No, itā€™s not a ā€œTerrorist Attackā€ then.
I suggest instead it might be a 5th Columnist act of sabotage, which has more serious implications for the US establishment IF they are indeed covering this up to be the caseā€¦
THAT is the ā€œConspiracyā€ here, not the actual damage to the bridge on this occasion.
The Cover Up.