The US Coast Guard announced that hopes of finding additional survivors following the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore have dwindled. They explained that efforts have now shifted towards locating the bodies of the missing individuals and conducting rigorous investigations into the cause of the accident. This devastating incident, blamed on a cargo ship collision, has sent shockwaves through Baltimore Harbor where divers will arrive at dawn to continue their search for the six workers still missing, now feared dead.
The Port of Baltimore, a strategic transit avenue along America’s east coast, is currently shut down indefinitely as the consequences of this tragedy ripple across the region, leading to a severe traffic bottleneck. The relentless search for the missing workers was halted on Tuesday evening, approximately 18 hours after they were ejected into icy waters following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
“Although it’s painful to admit, we are unlikely to discover any survivors amongst these individuals,” asserted Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the coast guard during a press conference. Due to deteriorating visibility and perilous currents in the debris-laden channel, further overnight search operations were deemed excessively risky by Maryland State police and US coast guard officials.
However, from 6am (or 10am in local time) on Wednesday, divers are slated to initiate a comprehensive search with the aim to locate and retrieve the bodies of the missing individuals, shared Colonel Roland Butler of the state police. Two workers were rescued and pulled out from the waters on Tuesday, with one being hospitalised.
Tragically, the victims, thought to be from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were crew members tasked with repairing potholes on the road surface of the Key Bridge. A container vessel flying the Singaporean flag, named the Dali – destined for Sri Lanka after departing from Baltimore, crashed into a bridge stand at around 1:30am, leading to a portion of the 2.6km-long bridge almost immediately buckling and plummeting into the river. This resulted in several vehicles and workers being helplessly propelled into the water.
The 289-metre vessel had reported a propulsion malfunction prior to colliding and managed to drop its anchor in an attempt to decelerate, allowing transportation officials to suspend bridge traffic prior to the crash. This action may have limited the number of fatalities, according to authorities. It remains uncertain whether any warning was given to the working crew before the collision.
Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, revealed during a briefing on Tuesday that the bridge complied with regulatory standards and had no noted structural problems. Officials found no signs of criminal activity.
The disaster in Baltimore has put the ship’s safety record into focus. The same vessel had a previous incident in 2016 at the Antwerp port in Belgium, crashing into a dock while trying to leave the North Sea container terminal.
A 2023 inspection conducted in Chile revealed deficiencies in the vessel’s “propulsion and auxiliary machinery”, as reported on the publicly available Equasis website that documents information about ships.
However, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore stated that the ship passed two different inspections at foreign ports in June and September 2023. A faulty fuel pressure gauge detected during the June 2023 inspection was fixed before the ship set sail from the port.
Footage on social media displayed the vessel hitting the Key Bridge at night, with the lights from vehicles visible on the bridge as it plunged into the water causing the ship to ignite.
All 22 crew members onboard the Grace Ocean Pte Ltd owned ship were accounted for, confirmed by its management company, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd.
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary, warned that closing the port could massively disrupt supply chains over a considerable period. The Port of Baltimore handled over 750,000 vehicles in 2022, more than any other US port, as well as a diverse range of container and bulk cargo from sugar to coal, according to port data.
However, economists and logistics experts are skeptical that the closure of the port would instigate a significant US supply chain crisis or precipitate a dramatic rise in product prices, due to sufficient capacity at competitive shipping hubs along the Eastern Seaboard.
The bridge’s destruction also led to complication in Baltimore’s roads, diverting drivers to two other congested harbour crossings and posing the prospect of prolonged regional traffic reroutes and dreadful daily commutes in the months or possibly years ahead.
The bridge that is named after the writer of The Star-Spangled Banner, hosts roughly 31,000 vehicles daily, traversing the harbour. It is particularly pertinent for drivers travelling between New York and Washington, who wish to bypass the city centre of Baltimore. This bridge was inaugurated in 1977.
Joe Biden, the President of the United States, reassured on Tuesday that he would touch down in Baltimore, located 64km from the site, the soonest he can. He expressed his keenness for the federal government to shoulder the fiscal burden of the bridge’s reconstruction.
On Tuesday, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, confirmed the deployment of a 24-member team to delve into the details of the accident. She also noted that safety staff from Singapore are scheduled to land in Baltimore on Wednesday.
The calamity on Tuesday might be the most devastating bridge collapse the US has seen since 2007; when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis dived into the Mississippi river, resulting in the death of 13 people. This information comes courtesy of Reuters.
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