Container ship rams, destroys U.S. bridge

Container ship rams, destroys U.S. bridge | Daily Tribune

A major United States bridge near the capital Washington was destroyed on Tuesday after a container ship rammed one of its pillars and it crumbled.

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland also suspended shipping in and out of one of the busiest ports in the US and sent emergency responders scrambling to search and rescue up to 20 motorists who fell into the Patapsco River, Kevin Cartwright of the Baltimore Fire Department told CNN.

The governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency shortly after the accident.

“I have declared a State of Emergency here in Maryland and we are working with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration,” Governor Wes Moore posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The Maryland Transportation Authority told drivers to avoid the area, part of the I-695 interstate highway, which it called an “active scene.”

Dramatic footage showed a 300-meter vessel hitting a footing of the bridge, causing the span to warp and crash in sections, with the third tranche cantilevering upwards before it, too, tumbles into the water.

Several small explosions can also be seen during the rapid collapse.

A huge emergency response swung into action after the collision, which happened around 1:30 a.m., with first response vehicles crowding the shoreline.

Photographs from the scene show debris from the bridge resting on the deck of the ship, where containers were stacked several high. Reports suggested some of the containers were unstable, complicating rescue efforts.

Divers were in the water looking for survivors, Cartwright said.

CNN reported that water temperatures were around 8.8 Celsius, complicating search and rescue efforts and narrowing the window of survivability for anyone in the water.

Ship monitoring website MarineTraffic showed a Singapore-flagged container ship called the Dali stopped under the bridge early Tuesday.

Logs show the vessel was en route from Baltimore to Colombo in Sri Lanka.

The BBC reported Synergy Marine Group confirming its vessel had been involved.

All crew, as well as pilots — the specialized mariners who navigate vessels around port areas — have been accounted with no reports of any injuries.

The 2.6-kilometer, four-lane bridge opened in 1977 and carries more than 11 million vehicles a year, around 31,000 a day.

It is a major part of the road network around Baltimore, an industrial city on the US East Coast next to the capital Washington.

Baltimore is one of the busiest cargo ports in the United States, handling billions of dollars of vehicles, containers, forest products and project cargo, according to the city’s port authority.

WITH AFP