Watching Baltimore’s Frances Scott Key Bridge collapse into the Patapsco river after a ship hit a bridge support is at the same time fascinating and tragic.
Fascinating because watching a giant structure like that collapse on camera is a rare and dramatic event — until you remember that this is not a controlled demolition; you’re watching workers die. At least 8 road crew workers were working on the bridge before it collapsed, and only two have been rescued, one in very serious condition. No one on the ship was injured.
I had the same chilling feeling after watching a 1999 video of a crane collapse at Miller Park (now American Family Field) baseball stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where three workers, Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave, and Jerome Starr, were killed when the suspended personnel platform in which they were observing the lift was hit by the falling crane. By coincidence, OSHA was at the site that morning, inspecting another part of the stadium as it was being constructed. There were high winds that day and the OSHA inspector happened to turn his camera to the crane right before the winds knocked it over.
Apparently, the ship that hit the bridge support had lost power but was able to issue a mayday call shortly before striking the bridge, giving officials a short time to stop cars and try to evacuate the span before it fell into the river. The workers on the Key Bridge were employed by Brawner Builders to fix potholes on the bridge. But despite the mayday call, the road repair crew remained on the bridge, with its vehicles parked on the span. There may also have been passenger vehicles still on the bridge.
It is unlikely that any of the workers who have not been rescued are still alive, even if they survived the initial collapse. According to the Washington Post,
At the time of the collapse, the air temperature was around 44 degrees, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Water temperatures in the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore were around 48 degrees.
At water temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees, “a person can lose the ability to make coordinated hand and finger movements in less than 5 minutes, lose consciousness in 30 to 60 minutes, and can likely swim only 7 to 40 minutes before exhaustion and die [within] 1 to 3 hours even with flotation,” writes John Downing, director of Minnesota’s Sea Grant program.
NOAA states that “body heat can be lost 4 times faster in cold water than in cold air.”
Freak Accident?
I often rail against workplace incidents being labeled “freak accidents,” because most of these incidents are the result of well-recognized hazards that the reporter wasn’t aware of.
We don’t know yet what caused this ship to lose power or what could have prevented it. For the workers on the bridge, this may be as close to a “freak accident” as you will see.
On the other hand, OSHA requires that “employees working over or near water, where the danger of drowning exists, shall be provided with U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket or buoyant work vests.” It’s unclear whether they were wearing life preservers or whether they would have survived the collapse of the bridge even with life preservers. All eight men had been on a meal break sitting in or near their vehicles when the bridge collapsed, according to a co-worker who had not been working that night.
It’s also unclear at this point why the workers were not immediately evacuated from the bridge even though there was time to stop traffic before the collapse.
J:
Absent C/V DALI striking the Key Bridge (something that no one could have reasonably foreseen or expected) the affected construction workers were no more exposed to drowning hazards than would have been the case with pothole repair workers conducting the same work at 3rd & Constitution.
The condition and operation of C/V DALI, however, may be another matter… which I hope NTSB and USCG will deeply scrutinize. Here’s a link that establishes yet another allision event experienced by that container ship at Antwerp [July 11, 1916]:
shipwrecklog.com/log/2016/07/dali/
Thank you for the timely commentary, and expressing the effect of this collapse. Although there is an element of “freak accident” for the tragedy of these workers from Mexico and Latin America, 3 from the same family, this is in a way an infrastructure neglect issue. Commentators and viewers, including myself, have wondered why there were not buffers protecting the piers of this essential bridge that sat in the middle of very busy shipping lanes. I wonder if it could have slowed or deflected the impact even if it might not have stopped such a heavy vessel completely. Certainly, you’re right however, the timing was dreadful for these workers.
Apparently there were buffers, but a) ships are much larger than they were 50 years ago, and b) the ship hit the support at an angle.
Of course, we’ll learn more after the NTSB investigation.
So few stories mention the workers, who clearly were not informed to evacuate from the bridge! Very good point re ships having back-up measures to shut down if power not working! I work on “port issues” so that def caught my attention! Thanks, Jordan. Andrea Hricko
It was reported this morning on Democracy Now! that most, if not all, of the workers were immigrants working for a private contractor. They were working the “midnight shift” repairing potholes. Like the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factor Fire on March 25, 1911 this is a time to honor America’s immigrant workers who contribute so much to our economy.
It was reported this morning on Democracy Now! that most, if not all, of the workers were immigrants working for a private contractor. They were working the “midnight shift” repairing potholes. Like the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factor Fire on March 25, 1911 this is a time to honor America’s immigrant workers who contribute so much to our economy. Construction workers are injured and killed on the job disproportionately.
It was reported this morning on Democracy Now! that most, if not all, of the workers were immigrants working for a private contractor. They were working the “midnight shift” repairing potholes. Like the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 1911 this is a time to honor America’s immigrant workers who contribute so much to our economy. Construction workers are injured and killed on the job disproportionately.