Baltimore, MD - Container Ship Strikes Francis Scott Key Bridge - Mass Casualty Situation

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airportwoman said:
I don't think road workers are going to turn out to be be day laborers. Most likely, they were employees of the City of Baltimore or the State of Maryland, and if they weren't, they were working for a subcontractor.
Click to expand...
It was in one of the linked articles. There’s a group who represents the day laborers who hired them out that’s trying to advocate on their behalf. I’ll find it.

www.usatoday.com

Two bodies in Baltimore bridge collapse recovered; 4 others remain missing: Live updates

Divers found the two victims trapped in a red pickup truck a little before 10 a.m. in about 25 feet of water around the bridge's middle span.
www.usatoday.com

I believe the supervisors of the crew were employees of the building company, but the laborers were day workers from a non profit day laborer organization.
 
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Warwick1991 said:
The workers were from a company named Brawner Builders. They were hired to repair potholes on the bridge.
Co-workers worry about missing colleagues in bridge collapse
Employer of missing bridge workers vows to help their families. "They were wonderful people," exec says.
Click to expand...
Thank you!

“An executive with Brawner Builders, a general contractor in Hunt Valley, Maryland, told CBS MoneyWatch the workers had company-sponsored life insurance, while declining to disclose details regarding the policies. Separately, a campaign is aiming to raise $60,000 to help their survivors.”

“The company is doing everything possible to support the families and to counsel the families and to be with the families," Brawner Builders executive vice president Jeffrey Pritzker said.”

Very glad to read the families are receiving financial and other support.
 
“They were wonderful family people,” Mr. Pritzker said, before describing the victims’ survivors. “Spouses, children.” He added, “It’s just a very, very bad day.”

“Mr. Pritzker said that Brawner’s owner was distressed and had spent the early hours of Tuesday near the bridge hoping for a rescue, and had also since met with families of all of the missing workers”


“Officials said that in addition to the six missing workers, two people had been rescued from the water. One did not need medical treatment, and another was taken to a hospital and released later in the day.”

www.nytimes.com

Bridge Collapse Victims Were Workers Supporting Families, Co-Worker Says

The six men worked for a company that often maintains bridges operated by the state. They were repairing the bridge’s roadway when it was struck by the ship.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
In 1980, the Key sustained a ship strike at basically the same speed, and survived it. What makes this time different? (Ships are bigger now.)

www.nytimes.com

Key Bridge Was Also Hit by a Ship in 1980, With Limited Damage

That year, a cargo vessel moving at about the same speed as the Dali hit the structure after losing control. But such ships were smaller then.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
Only saw a flash of this before the paywall, but whoever way back on the thread was speculating about Sparrows Point being used until the channel was clear because it's outside the bridge, YOU WERE RIGHT!

www.thebaltimorebanner.com

Every dock in the Port of Baltimore is shutting down — except one

Tradepoint Atlantic on Sparrows Point is the only major shipping site within the Port of Baltimore that lies outside the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com
 
This is a very sad time for Brawner Builders.

At 1:40 AM on March 26, 2024 a massive container ship struck the Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor causing its sudden collapse.

A Brawner Builders work crew was doing bridge maintenance work on the surface of the bridge at that time.

I, Jack Murphy, the owner of Brawner Builders, and other senior personnel have met with each and every family of our very valued and loved employees who have perished in this tragedy.

Highway workers are engaged in one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States and yet they go out every day on our highways to make things better for everyone.

Safety has always been a prime consideration for our workers, and we have always taken every step necessary to provide safety for our workers in this dangerous occupation.

Typically, this includes what you are familiar with, cones, signs, lights, and barriers and everything you see on the highways to protect our workers as they do their jobs.

Unfortunately, this tragic event was completely unforeseen and was not something that we could imagine would happen.

Our company is in mourning over the loss of these fine people. But of course, our sense of loss cannot in any way compare to what their families are feeling.

As to the one individual who was hospitalized, we pray for a full recovery.

For those who have perished in this tragedy our prayers are with them and their families.
brawnerbuilders.com

Home - Brawner Builders, Inc.

Brawner Builders
brawnerbuilders.com brawnerbuilders.com
 
Very short but well spoken video of a former FBI diver talking about the job, the risks specific to the bridge disaster, and the supports for divers dealing with recovery of human remains.

www.bbc.com

Former FBI diver explains risks of Baltimore recovery

Divers recovered two bodies in the aftermath of the bridge collapse and will return when debris has been cleared.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
ilovewings said:

This is an article from the Wall Street Journal- it is behind a paywall- hope some of you will be able to read it!
Click to expand...
The Singaporean owner of the cargo ship that took down the bridge is expected to invoke a law dating back to the 19th century that limits the liability of ships’ owners, according to Lawrence Brennan, a law professor at Fordham University in New York. The law is similar to one used by the Titanic’s owners after that “unsinkable” liner hit an iceberg.
www.bloomberg.com

Titanic Law Helps Ship Owner Limit Bridge Collapse Liability

The owner of the ship that rammed into a Baltimore bridge could face hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims after the accident sent vehicles plunging into the water and threw the eastern US transportation network into chaos.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com

Damages claims are likely to fall on the ship owner and not the agency that operates the bridge, since stationary objects aren’t typically at fault if a moving vessel hits them, said Michael Sturley, a maritime law expert at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law.

But an 1851 law could lower the exposure to tens of millions of dollars by capping the ship owner’s liability at how much the vessel is worth after the crash, plus any earnings it collected from carrying the freight on board, said Martin Davies, the director of Tulane University’s Maritime Law Center.

The ship owner’s insurance would help the company through the legal risks. About 90% of the world’s ocean-bound cargo is insured by an arm of the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs, which oversees the 12 major mutual insurance associations for ship owners.
news.bloomberglaw.com

Titanic Law Helps Ship Owner Limit Bridge Collapse Liability (3)

The owner of the ship that rammed into a Baltimore bridge could face hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims after the accident sent vehicles plunging into the water and threw the eastern US transportation network into chaos.
news.bloomberglaw.com news.bloomberglaw.com
 
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www.dailymail.co.uk

Hazardous chemicals LEAKING into Baltimore harbor after bridge crash

Hazardous material is leaking into Baltimore harbor after some of the containers on the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge were 'breached.'
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk

So now it also an environmental issue as well. Who knows what chemicals are leaking into the harbor.
 

"Doomed Dali ship's audio black box ​

reveals multiple alarms were blaring in moments leading up to collision with Key Bridge ​

and that pilot frantically requested tug boat help and for anchor to be dropped.​


1711642340811.png

Multiple alarms sounded on board the doomed Dali cargo ship in the minutes before it smashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge,
new black box audio data revealed.

Marcel Muise,
the NTSB lead investigator in the case, said Wednesday that alarms began blaring on the ship at 1.24am.

At 1.26am, the ship's pilot requested urgent help from nearby tug boats,
and at 1.27am he ordered the ship's anchor be dropped.

NTSB has sought more detailed data from ship's voyage data recorders for a long time, and said they are instead fitted with apparatus that can only record basic data.

Although the Dali ship featured a newer model than others, the NTSB chair said that it is still 'very basic' compared to what investigators would expect from an aircraft's black box.

This means that while the Dali data incudes the ship's location and rudder commands alongside audio, it does not record important details such as power distribution data.

Homendy concluded that the cargo ship has been left in a state of 'utter devastation' and has 'structural damage everywhere',
as it continues to be anchored in place."

www.dailymail.co.uk

Doomed Dali ship's audio black box details revealed

The NTSB said it has retrieved six hours of audio data from the ship's wreckage, finding that in the moments before impact, alarms were blaring and the pilot asked for urgent help.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
 
sds71 said:
www.wafb.com

Video shows Baltimore's bridge moments before collapse

Traffic cam video shows moments leading up to Key Bridge collapse.
www.wafb.com www.wafb.com
Click to expand...
This clearly shows the road crew were on the eastern side of the bridge in the northbound lanes, which would be opposite the side the ship impacted from. They wouldn't have been able to see much other than the ship was not central in the channel. The ship must have made loud distress and alarm horn signals in the last minutes.

Also a very slowly moving large vehicle in the same northbound lanes. It seems like that vehicle would not be moving fast enough to get off the bridge.

There is also no southbound traffic at all at the end of the video we can see, where, presumable, the collapse is visible but blocked from public viewing.

I believe the toll plaza, which was the first area to get shut down after the alarm went out, is on the North end of Highway 695, and perhaps the lack of southbound traffic on the last part of the video we see reflects that closure already.

Still doesn't explain what happened to that large slow-moving truck. The video of the collapse clearly shows a large semi going southbound just before the collapse and it looks like it escapes onto the fixed ramp at the last minute, but this one is going northbound.

*edited for proofreading
 
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