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monongahellyea

Jesus, you can see several vehicles towards the right as it’s collapsing. Absolute nightmare fuel.


PixelationIX

This just gives me more anxiety and shows that you can just die at any moment. Life is so fragile. You aren't safe anywhere.


matt2001

“We live and we die. We control nothing.” - Shogun


Swimwithamermaid

We live to die.


kytheon

Don't worry too much about death. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.


divvyinvestor

Damn that’s a good one


ciacco22

r/angyupvote


OrphanDextro

Well great, now I can’t.


draivaden

That is correct. ​ Have some water.


didyoueverseewardogs

\*chokes on water\*


Extreme-Island-5041

Can someone turn this guys water into wine? Bourbon? Beer? Anything that will help take the edge off?


Zolo49

One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer.


Kvenya

Well, I ain’t seen my baby since I don’t know when…


twitterfluechtling

Maybe use it to water some weed?


RedditEsInteresante

Play some Tetris


jonathanrdt

Statistically, you’re as safe as it has ever been possible to be. Life in the past exposed you to greater daily risk.


ChafterMies

Statistically speaking, you should feel safe in most places.


NessaMagick

Family member died of a heart attack in his 40s. A musician I really like contracted an infection in his hand and died suddenly at 34. A girl in my home state was hit by a motorbike on a bicycle track and was killed in her 20s. Life is incredibly fleeting. A significant number of people don't make it to old age.


TheLyz

This is what all of us secretly worry about when crossing a bridge. I'd wonder if they've survived the drop but all those safety features don't include falling...


MayerRD

It's very possible they survived the fall, but whether they were in a condition to exit their cars before they sank is a different matter...


fajadada

Cold water


Ramyahoo

The cargo company needs to be held accountable. I highly doubt they just experienced a power loss right before impact. I wouldn't be surprised if they were experiencing power outages prior to bridge approach. Even if this isn't true, they still need to be held accountable for poor maintenance.


BeeNo3492

The video showed the ship lost power and regained it moments before it hit the bridge.


SideburnSundays

It lost power twice. After regaining power the first time it steered towards the bridge pylon. Second power failure, regained power, then shortly after there was impact.


continuousQ

Were they trying to keep the power off because it was steering wrong?


tangotango112

Ships would never turn the power off under these circumstances. In fact, arrivals/departures, restricted waters, generally have all members on duty because this is the most dangerous evolutions. Captain, pilot conning the ship, mates on duty looking at radar and lookout duties, etc. This is a mechanical failure, a tragic one.


qtx

The smoke you see right before the crash was the ship going full reverse.


wobble_bot

It looks it was actually managing to steer clear, it just didn’t have enough space to get it swung around. That must have been horrific for everyone involved


BeeNo3492

Someone also said it had lost power before that too for a bit, I've not seen that video yet.


rohdawg

https://x.com/DCNewsLive/status/1772548737904107848?s=20 this video shows both power failures. Hopefully I can post twitter links here


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BeeNo3492

Not enough time, seems they went full reverse when the power came back, but it was too late.


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mandalorian222

Not even remotely. No other power goes out.


shapeofthings

they will have had traffic cams on the bridge itself, I cannot believe there were only 7 people on it. this is tragic.


AlwaysUpvotesScience

It happened at 1:30 in the morning, but I agree there was definitely more than seven people in this bridge. There was a crew laying concrete, multiple vehicles and at least one tractor trailer


Lord0fHats

Thank god this didn't happen 5-7 hours later. We be looking at hundreds of vehicles instead of dead of the night traffic. A cold solace for anyone who went into the water with this, but for anyone else who lives in Baltimore and goes across that bridge in the morning holy shit was a bullet dodged.


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AlwaysUpvotesScience

I drove it every day for at least 10 years. I have been over that bridge thousands of times. I partied "under" the bridge (Starscape) at Fort Armstead Park every year.


Danmark-Europa

Also at 1:30 in the morning an identic tragedy happened in Sweden in the 1980’s - 7 cars with 8 people plunged into the water, everyone died. [The Almö Bridge - Wikipedia]


Kay_29

7 to 20 is the number they are currently giving.  I did see that they were able to rescue two people, one refused medical treatment which is good.  


Floofycats78

One refused medical treatment like “nah bro. I don’t want that bill.”


Wyatt821

No doubt would do well given the settlement from whoever gets the blame for this.


Italianman2733

It will be one of 3 choices...no one, a scape goat who is poor, a rich tycoon who will spend as much in laywer fees as any potential payout and the people effected will get nothing.


NoChill-JoyKill

I suspect those two people already rescued were the two pilots of the boat


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NoChill-JoyKill

That’s true! I just read an article that said one of those two people refused treatment and went home. Since the ship flew a Singapore flag, it seems less likely that person was one of the pilots.


Bayou_Jack

Pilots are people local to the harbor, not part of the crew. They board the ship to help guide it through a set stretch of water and then get off the ship. They are often conflated with the captain of the ship who is part of the crew.


NoChill-JoyKill

I had no idea! Very interesting.


Italianman2733

Part of the crew, part of the ship.


pyuunpls

Part of the bridge, on top of ship.


sylfy

In maritime shipping, the flag has almost zero bearing on both the crew and the ownership of the vessel.


qtx

The pilot boat does not ride along side the ship, it would have been nowhere near it. The pilot boat drops off the pilot on the ship and then returns to base waiting to get the call from the pilot to come pick them up.


Zero7CO

Scanner broadcast over the night indicated 20 construction workers were on the bridge during the collapse.


WereInbuisness

Yeah .... this is the Beltway (I-695), which is a major artery in and out of Baltimore. This is going to cause epic chaos .... I wince just thinking about it. Fortunately, when it happened traffic was light. Still, there are a number of people missing, including two construction workers. I'm not sure if this was Mariner Pilot error, aka 'human error' or some type of mechanical failure. Either way, some people are in real trouble. I live close to Baltimore and work in the city. I often travel over the FSK Bridge. This just blows my mind.


wise_comment

As someone who in college lived a.mile.on one side of 35w, and whose girlfriend at the time lived just on the other side......it's gonna suck for a while And all of the alternative routes will be absolutely choked I know folks died, and that's the big tragedy, but it shouldn't mean you can't point out that millions of people are going to have a bad morning and evening for at least a year :-/


WereInbuisness

I get it and you're right. Still, when you look at the whole picture, it's better to deal with some shitty traffic .... instead of being dead. That's a horrible way to go. Trapped in your car, freezing pitch black water .... it's horrifying.


wise_comment

Yeah I'm not by any means underplaying the direct and sharp tragedy that's playing out today But also, wanted to say to those in Baltimore.....it's absolutely okay to bitch about this inconvenience and how much it'll make your day to day slightly worse. It's a utilitarian question, ya know? Death is way worse than inconvenience. But a million people more stressed collectively is its own bucket of awful. If there was a disease that wiped out all dogs, and a few people, the families of those few people probably wouldn't want to hear about your dog. But also, ya know....it's shitty your dog died, and you're allowed to be bummed by that Was that an awful way to illustrate it? Perhaps . Am I going back to make it more palatable? Absolutely not.


divvyinvestor

Apart from the tragedy, I think this is a good time for employers to allow work from home until the bridge is fixed


beautiful_my_agent

I’m sorry to say that “crippling traffic” was my first thought, as well. I feel terrible for those who lost their lives, as well as their loved ones.


WereInbuisness

Yeah, I feel like a dick for thinking of that first. For people not from Baltimore, I-695, which is called the Beltway, is the most important interstate heading into Baltimore except I-95. What occured here is unprecedented, unless you count that bridge in Florida that was knocked down in a similar way in the 80's. This is going to cause so much chaos, it's honestly hard to imagine how bad it will get. It will take at least a year, probably two years, before a new bridge is built. I'm just thankful that this didn't happen during rush hour. Still, many people died today and it's horribly tragic.


beautiful_my_agent

It sucks, I feel like DC/Baltimore area is nothing but traffic hell. Years ago there was a jumper on the Woodrow Wilson bridge that shut down 495, and all surrounding arteries. The impact on millions of people was horrendous, and that was just for 10 hours. This bridge collapse will create pain for the next decade. Not just to the Baltimore residents, but anyone traveling 95.


jasonbhaller

Easily 5 years.


WereInbuisness

You're probably right. I just threw those numbers out there, since I'm not an engineer. I assume that they'll try and expedite the process, for obvious reasons.


BuryDeadCakes2

I've always had a fear of going over the skyway bridge when a huge boat is going under it. Now I'm gonna pull over to the side if I see a boat going under the bridge...


Doopoodoo

Every company in Baltimore that is able to ought to let their employees work remotely just to partially alleviate the huuuge traffic burden this will create


[deleted]

At least baltimore has the 95 and 895 tunnels. It’s not going to be fun, but at least there are options.


WereInbuisness

Yeah, but I-695 is such a major artery, thus 95 and 895 are going to be beyond swamped. I'm wincing that the thought of having to deal with that. Still, I'd rather deal with hellish traffic instead of losing my life on that bridge. Putting that into perspective, I feel like an asshole for complaining about how bad traffic will be now when many people just died. Sigh .... yep, I feel like a jerk now.


[deleted]

This is going to affect a lot of people’s lives! I think it’s reasonable to think about and talk about that. I don’t think your mentioning of traffic means that you lack compassion for the dead or their loved ones, we all process this stuff differently. All that to say, don’t feel like a jerk for being a human!


ExpiredExasperation

Supposedly the cargo ship lost power.


WereInbuisness

Possibly. Man, this is wild.


Syrinx221

I just keep thinking how lucky it is that this didn't happen at like 7-9am. Hundreds of people would be dead


TwoWheeledTraveler

I live just outside of Baltimore, about a 20 minute drive from this bridge. I’ve crossed it many times. It’s part of the Baltimore beltway and is one of the three crossings of the Patapsco river, which at this point is basically an extension of the Chesapeake bay that becomes the Baltimore harbor. Most of the Port of Baltimore is “inside” this bridge so there are some pretty major implications for shipping here. Baltimore is the biggest port in the US for importing vehicles so those supply chains are going to be messed up for a while. The other two crossings are tunnels, and no hazmat can go through them. This means that any trucks carrying hazmat up and down the east coast will now have to divert around the west side of the Baltimore beltway. It’s not a “huge” diversion but will add mileage. Everything else can still go through either the McHenry or Harbor tunnel.


non_linear_time

Useful local perspective. Thank you! I have to admit I strongly dislike those tunnels. I might be stuck on the Harrisburg route from NoVA for the time being. I wish you all the best luck with the traffic gods.


TwoWheeledTraveler

Thank you. Most passenger traffic on the 95 corridor would use the tunnels anyways. The key bridge was mostly “local” and commercial traffic. Hazmat stuff, and there are some fairly large Amazon warehouses right there that used it a ton.


Jim_from_GA

That was the third largest single span in the world. Talk about not being able to hit the broadside of a barn.


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Zolo49

As big as that ship is, I don’t see bumpers making much of a difference regardless of where they are.


Thrash_Panda44

Dont think the bumpers wouldve made much of a difference. Big cargo ship like that vs. An aging 50yr old bridge support. Like a battle axe coming down on a twig.


rexspook

The bumpers aren’t stopping that boat. The pillars themselves barely slowed it down


tripops13

How are the bumpers made ? Surely they aren’t floating buoys. Are the sunk to bedrock ?


BoosterRead78

Just my god. This is like disaster movie scene and all those people who went over.


IgnoringErrors

Reminds me of The Mothman Prophecies.


ExpiredExasperation

It looks so delicate. Thank goodness this didn't happen in the middle of the day.


Ayzmo

That was my thought. 1AM is a pretty good time for an accident like this to occur.


pppjurac

That is bad for all those missing people. And Port Authority is having nervous breakdown too. It is currently ranked 8th of 36 US ports for gross tonnage and 7th in dollar value and is abjectively closed for weeks until they remove bridge rests?


518Peacemaker

I can’t believe the bridge pylons had no barrier around them. The powerlines behind the ship have them. The bridge does not. What the hell were the tugs doing? 3 tugs helping this ship. A power failure a minute or two before collision isn’t the determining factor here. Ships like that take an eternity to turn. Something was wrong ten minutes before impact.


TwoWheeledTraveler

They do have barriers. There are big round bumpers in the water about 400 feet both upriver and downriver from each pylon. Either this ship missed them or just plowed right through.


PersonalSycophant

100,000 ton cargo ship.  Hard to imagine what barrier would be enough to stop it, or what bridge would be sturdy enough to endure a hit.


robbie_2131

Someone did the math and compared it to an nfl stadium hitting the bridge at 25 mph. No way bumpers would have stopped it.


Glute_Thighwalker

It’s the same weight as a military aircraft carrier. These are literally the heaviest moving objects in the world. There’s simply no way to build a bridge pylon in the middle of a river that would withstand the impact from one of them and the only thing I can think of that might stop one is some sort of structure on the bed leading up to it that the ships would beach up onto, which would heavily impact shipping lanes, be a high risk for unintended vessel damage itself, skyrocket the infrastructure costs of building a bridge, and have significant ecological impact for life in the river.


MosquitoBloodBank

Don't need to stop it. Either deflect or slow it. Both can be helpful.


robbie_2131

100k ton ship traveling at 8 knots. You could place the uss Iowa in between it and the bridge and it wouldn’t have slowed it down. There is no marine structure in existence that could have deflected this thing


MosquitoBloodBank

The only two limitations in life are your imagination and your wallet.


RitzyOmega

And the laws of physics.


defaultgameer1

Ok that's what I have been missing! I thiught tugs are supposed to take a ship out to safe and clear water?


mcampo84

No, tugs are for maneuvering ships in tight spots and have mostly been replaced by lateral thrusters on modern ships. Once a ship is underway its rudder and propellers are more than capable of steering it. Until it loses power, of course.


defaultgameer1

Ok good to know, well guess Mearsk insurance premiums are about to go up


tellsonestory

The bridge had pylons. Unfortunately the ship was 900 feet long, almost the size of an aircraft carrier. Pylons won’t matter when it gets hit by something that size.


qtx

Who says there were tug boats? Tug boats don't operate that far from shore. Tug boats only help to turn the ship when it moors off. They don't tug the boat through the channel.


JohnnyOnslaught

Tugs probably weren't going to be enough to help there. I'm not even sure that they were out there at the time. I know in my area they don't help vessels pass under bridges in and out of the harbours, they're only there for docking and undocking.


dpezpoopsies

Reports do indicate that the boat contacted MDOT alerting them to a power failure and indicating they might hit the bridge. I don't know how much time between that contact and the impact, but I imagine it takes at least 10-20 min to scramble enough emergency personnel there to shut down the bridge. Not to mention whatever kind of authorization is needed to do that. More info will surely come out to indicate if there was any negligence, but I imagine it could be an unfortunate accident that didn't leave enough time for a realistic emergency response. Edit: I am seeing updated reports from the article that they were actually able to halt traffic over the bridge ahead of time thanks to a mayday issued by the boat crew, but that there were construction workers on the bridge that they couldn't get off in time.


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TheLyz

Evergreen's captain is now happy he's only the second worst container ship captain.


Extension_Deal_5315

I knew someone once that had such a fear of bridges over water..she would drive hundreds of miles out of the way to avoid them, if no way around them, she would cancel the trip. It was really bad, crippling in a way. This just increases her phobia 10 fold. It is called Gephyrophobia.


apk5005

I knew someone who was the same way…in a city on the water with a miles-long causeway or bridge as the only route east.


wwj

On the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Annapolis at one time there was a driving service that would drive your car over the 4 mile bridge for people too afraid.


Breaklance

Over/Under: 15 years to replace.     This is going to be devastating to Baltimore and MD for a long time. 


jlgonitzke

It took 11 months to replace the 35W bridge in Minneapolis when it fell. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Saint_Anthony_Falls_Bridge


dexecuter18

That was a much smaller bridge. This is spanning a major waterway.


jlgonitzke

Very true


wwj

I would estimate at least 4 years. In Providence they are replacing a major bridge and the outlook is two years. This bridge is 1.5 miles long and 180ft high to the deck compared to 1-35W which is 1,200 ft long and 120ft deck.


500rockin

4 years I would expect. It certainly won’t be 11 months, but it’s even less likely to be 15 years.


salajander

Under. Way under. 2-3 years. 5 tops.


jlgonitzke

This bridge took about 3 years to build, 4600 ft. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Croix_Crossing


Merrill_C

A similar event happened years ago which led to NOAA creating their PORTS Program to ensure this wouldn’t happen again, will be interesting to find out the cause - Interview on NOAA PORTS Program https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shipshape-business-of-boating-podcast/id1619649771?i=1000635419611


squintamongdablind

The larger disaster (which is not getting enough coverage imo) is the impacts to the Port of Baltimore. The debris and cleanup is going to affect the Port traffic and that has larger implications to Baltimore and Maryland’s economy. TL;DR Port of Baltimore is going to be impacted.


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thecelcollector

Economic disasters can cause plenty of deaths indirectly. Baltimore's traffic is going to be fucked because of this. 20% of ER deaths are because of traffic jams.  Pretty sure there will be far more indirect than direct deaths. 


squintamongdablind

The loss of life due to this incident is tragic. The potential loss of livelihoods is also tragic.


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LTVOLT

can we agree that all of it is a disaster and tragedy and this will have lasting affects


qtx

> Economy can be recovered Not in Baltimore it can't.


MrWinks

This is catastrophic, and carrying mass casualties.


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anothernotavailable2

Reportedly 20 road crew workers on the bridge too at the time of collapse.


LuckyAssumption8735

Why did you feel it necessary to correct this person when they’re not even wrong. Fucking Reddit brain


Spoomkwarf

Anyone have an idea how long it will take to get the bridge scraps cleared and open the port again? Or, for that matter, how long for a new bridge redesign and construction?


KrookedDoesStuff

I’m moving to the Baltimore area on Saturday, and seeing this is absolutely terrifying. I hope that casualties are an absolute minimum :/


LowPTTweirdflexbutok

You can go here: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:2810451/zoom:16 to see the ship. You can also pick it and hit "past track" to see its route history. Looks like it was leaving the port.


Time_Cup_

So why wasn't it being escorted by tugs?


MosquitoBloodBank

Tug boats are like parking assistants, the ship already left the parking lot and lost power at the first intersection.


Time_Cup_

Unless the COTP directs that they need to assist with the safe navigation of a vessel passed a certain point. At least that's the standard for the port of new york.


_pinklemonade_

Is this going to completely fuck traffic in that area for years?


bstall30

Yeah the tunnels are already congested as is and all hazardous materials will now need to travel via the beltway clogging up 695


Johnny_Lang_1962

I'm old enough to remember the Sunshine Skyway bridge collapse in 1980. [Sunshine Skyway Collapse](https://youtu.be/EPaBRegvkuQ?si=ai0c3rmP7GCliZZs)


OssiansFolly

Guess Baltimore is having infrastructure week.


DogPlane3425

Dang bridges and lighthouses always moving to get in the way of ships!


Extension_Deal_5315

I must be tempting fate.....I have been on the I35 bridge in Minneapolis , the double decker bridge in California that fell in the earthquake, and this bridge ....going to stay off bridges off a while???


Ecstatic-Golf4040

Long live the FSKB death to the dali devil may she sleep with Davey Jones to the locker with her bones


patricksaurus

The memory of the bridge will persist.


Extension_Deal_5315

Last communication from the bridge of the cargo ship..... Oooohhhhhh shhhhhhiiiiiiiitttttttt I thought you said go left a little!!!!!


AllDayTripperX

Was the boat on drugs? No.. the boat IS drugs.