Breaking: Baltimore bridge collapses into ocean as container ship crashes into it; multiple cars in the water, rescue services on scene

[Zidane98]

This is absolutely horrific. First priority is accounting for everyone involved and supporting the families of the victims.


Second priority is any similar bridges around the world immediately need protecting installed for support columns and/or an immediate policy of ships being under tow by multiple tug boats until they are clear of any vulnerable bridges. This sort of tragedy has never occurred. Supersize cargo ships were not a thing in the 70s, I bet a ship of 100,000 tons size was never envisaged colliding with a support column in the design.

A replacement bridge is going to take years to complete.

 

[kaiserchief13]

Not sure about the engineering if a hit to 1 pillar brings down the whole bridge so quickly. Which company built it?

 

[Zidane98]

Looks like the ship had a complete power failure just before the accident. Appears the captain/pilot did not have control of the ship and attempted to stop the vessel by dropping an anchor / putting the engines into full reverse (this is where you see the black smoke belching out) They made a mayday call and this apparently resulted in traffic being instructed to not proceed further on the bridge which likely saved some lives.


That sounds absolutely horrific for the crew on the ship who would be helpless (I imagine they blew their horn multiple times) as it collided with the support column at around 2 knots.

 

[Zidane98]

Not sure about the engineering if a hit to 1 pillar brings down the whole bridge so quickly. Which company built it?

Dali weighs 117,000,000 kilograms. There aren't many bridges that wouldn't be brought down by that force taking out a main supporting column, even at a few knots.


The issue here seems to be there wasn't enough protection around the column (it had some protection) to stop a ship the size of the Dali colliding with it.

 

[Zidane98]

I'm going to bet that some tin foil hat wearers are claiming controlled demolition

At least holograms and space lasers can probably be ruled out of this one.

 

[Gough]

I'm going to bet that some tin foil hat wearers are claiming controlled demolition

Ask and ye shall receive. Jones quoting Tate is pretty much peak stupid.

 

[the_interloper]

Ask and ye shall receive. Jones quoting Tate is pretty much peak stupid.

* me, didn't think it would be this quick

 

[Zidane98]

* me, didn't think it would be this quick

Alex Jones has the cooker clickbait market nailed. Can make quite a bit of advertising just from the cookers who eat this stuff up.

 

[Smoooothy]

to give an idea of how big this bridge is, the westgate is a similar size height wise

 

[Zidane98]

Ridiculous

 

[the_interloper]

Alex Jones has the cooker clickbait market nailed. Can make quite a bit of advertising just from the cookers who eat this stuff up.

You should see some of Russell Brand's latest vids, * me has he joined the party

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

I hate to ask, but what is a 'black swan event'?

 

[dogs105]

I hate to ask, but what is a 'black swan event'?

AN event that is seen to be so unlikely it will never happen, but the type of thing that does regularly occur but no-one has thought of them beforehand.

From Northern Hemisphere, pre discovery of WA - all swans are white.

 

[cats_09]

* me, didn't think it would be this quick

What about a known GOP Congresswoman cooker going early with the conspiracies - surely this beats the Tate/Jones tweet for stupidity



and didn't take long for context to be added

 

[Gough]

What about a known GOP Congresswoman cooker going early with the conspiracies - surely this beats the Tate/Jones tweet for stupidity



and didn't take long for context to be added

View attachment 1940836

The sad truth is these people are always desperate from mass casualty events, and the bigger the better because it just brings about the chaos that allows them to thrive.

 

[Woody15]

Apparently the sparks and 'explosions' at the top of the bridge prior to collapse are evidence of another controlled demolition.

Definitely not the power lines snapping.

God I hate the internet.

 

[Smoooothy]

The sad truth is these people are always desperate from mass casualty events, and the bigger the better because it just brings about the chaos that allows them to thrive.

never waste an emergency!

 

[Plugger35]

Dali weighs 117,000,000 kilograms. There aren't many bridges that wouldn't be brought down by that force taking out a main supporting column, even at a few knots.


The issue here seems to be there wasn't enough protection around the column (it had some protection) to stop a ship the size of the Dali colliding with it.

There was a similar bridge collapse in Florida back in 1980 when a freighter ship hit the Skyway Bridge which resulted in 35 deaths.

They then rebuilt the bridge with more protection for the support columns, they need to do something similar if they rebuild this bridge.

.

 

[Zidane98]

There was a similar bridge collapse in Florida back in 1980 when a freighter ship hit the Skyway Bridge which resulted in 35 deaths.

They then rebuilt the bridge with more protection for the support columns, they need to so something similar if they rebuild this bridge.

Obviously the bridge will be rebuilt, it's a major transport route. Seems like they knew this could happen but didn't mitigate against it even if it was highly unlikely.

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Obviously the bridge will be rebuilt, it's a major transport route. Seems like they knew this could happen but didn't mitigate against it even if it was highly unlikely.

It's not uncommon for major structures to have below the line controls for risks that are perceived to be extremely rare, mostly it's due to governments of the day not wanting to spend money to address hazards on existing things when the return on building new things is much higher.

This will probably invoke a worldwide examination of bridges in harbours but there are lots more once offs around the world waiting to be discovered unfortunately.

 

[Gough]

We're about to be taught a lesson, as if we needed one of the value of an African life compared to an American one.

 

[HairyO]

We're about to be taught a lesson, as if we needed one of the value of an African life compared to an American one.

What is the lesson ?

 

[revo333]

What is the lesson ?

If it happened in America it would be on the news.

 

[HairyO]

If it happened in America it would be on the news.

The SA bus crash was all over the news all over the world.

 

[Gough]

The SA bus crash was all over the news all over the world.

For about five minutes directly after it happened.