Key Bridge in Baltimore Collapses After Vessel Strike

One God and Father of All said:

A cargo ship like this has a back-up system in case of initial system failure. It might be the crew didn’t have enough time to execute the back-up system to correct the ship’s course.

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Possibly, or possibly the failure affected the backup system as well. The backup systems also generally have less power than the primary systems, and thus may not be able to make course changes as rapidly.

One God and Father of All said:

Switching to a back-up system probably required manual steering course direction. If the pilot is Biden supporter he wouldn't know left from right.

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That's uncalled for. There's no need to make this political.

One God and Father of All said:

Biden says it will take some time to rebuild the bridge.

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Building bridges does generally take a while. The Sunshine Skyway bridge in St. Petersburg took 7 years to re-open after a freighter hit it in 1980.

iluvatar5150 said:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/us/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-tuesday

Live Updates: Major Bridge in Baltimore Collapses After Being Struck by Cargo Ship

A Singapore-flagged vessel struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday. Part of the span has collapsed, and an emergency response is underway, the authorities said, with people possibly in the water.

www.nytimes.com

https://x.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1772533011403137388?s=46

Better version of cnn video:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/xizL720HHk

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Scary stuff! I think I remember you’re a Baltimore local? Hope everyone’s ok on your side of the screen. I haven’t heard about any victims yet but hoping everyone makes out of the water ok.

iluvatar5150 said:

Thanks. I have one friend who works at the port, but he's fine. I'm not sure, but it sounds like the only people people on the bridge might have been road crew. They managed to issue a mayday and shut down traffic ahead of the collision.

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Good to hear! It’s also great fortune it happened in the middle of the night and not at a much more trafficked time of day.

it was awesome to get some good information on what happened.

I thank everyone...

Yes it will be years before a new bridge is built.... I feel for everyone there, all the way around.

mala said:

from the mad drivel you are posting here i wouldn't trust you to set a thermostat let alone listen to anything you have to say about ships.

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Ask the guy who went on a cruise to set your thermostat.

GoldenBoy89 said:

Good to hear! It’s also great fortune it happened in the middle of the night and not at a much more trafficked time of day.

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This is comforting I was freaking out at 5:20 in the previous videos thinking about the cars going down. Yes, thankfully at night!

Pommer said:

A major artery in Baltimore is no more.
Rebuilding it is a no-brainer; what could Biden do/say that would elicit a favorable response from your good self?

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"I'm hereby stepping down as president and will be replaced by Donald J. Trump effective immediately."

...well, if you had plans to buy a new imported car, you may want to pull the trigger now.


Baltimore’s the top port in the nation for automobile shipments, having imported and exported more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry group.
...

The Port of Baltimore was the 17th largest in the nation by total tons in 2021 and an important artery for the movement of autos, construction machinery and coal. It handled 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo worth nearly $81 billion in 2023, according to Maryland data, and creates more than 15,000 jobs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/27/baltimore-port-economy-disruption-bridge-collapse/

More on the ship's power loss and the pilot's actions:

A few minutes before the cargo ship Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, the vessel had a “complete blackout” that knocked out power to the engine and navigation equipment, an industry official said.

The official, Clay Diamond, the executive director of the American Pilots Association, said Tuesday that he had been speaking regularly with the Association of Maryland Pilots and that the cause of the system failure was unclear. Though the ship’s backup generators had kicked on, restoring some power, the propulsion system remained offline.

As the vessel lost power, Mr. Diamond said, the pilot in command of the vessel ordered that the ship be turned as much as possible to the left and that the port anchor be dropped to try to halt or slow the vessel’s drift toward the bridge. Mr. Diamond said that the pilot’s order protected people on the bridge who could have been affected by a collision.
“As soon as he lost power, he realized what could happen,” Mr. Diamond said. “He immediately asked that the bridge be closed to traffic.”

Regarding tug boats:
About an hour before the collision, according to vessel-tracking data from the maritime data platform Marine Traffic, tugboats began guiding the Dali from its berth and then helped it turn southward toward the bridge. As the ship began moving on its course, the tugboats departed, leaving the Dali to continue on its own, as is common practice in the port.

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www.nytimes.com

Over-eager staffer strikes again!

Utah lawmaker blames 'diversity' for Baltimore bridge collapse​

Phil Lyman, a state representative, retweeted and commented on a post that focused on a commissioner for the Port of Baltimore who is a Black woman.

Lyman, in talking to The Salt Lake City Tribune, blamed the posts on his social media staff, saying he did not approve the post before it went live.

“It was not our best moment,” he told the newspaper. “The post was a knee-jerk reaction to some of the things others were putting out there.”

“I prefer a dignified approach and sometimes the people who handle the social media are more provocative than what I’m comfortable with,” Lyman said.

The posts were still visible on Lyman’s account as of Wednesday afternoon, including one that called DEI “poison” and another retweet stating “DEI = Didn’t Earn It.”

“This is what happens when you have governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens,”

The young staff member is understandably confused. With Trump leading the party, it must be challenging for young staff to know where the "lines" are.....

The Dali vessel was involved in a collision in 2016 in Antwerp. Don’t know if there is any significance to this & on break at work.

Will Congress support funding when they return to session?

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told Fox Business on Thursday it was “kind of outrageous immediately for Biden to express on this tragedy the idea that he’s going to use federal funds to pay for it in entirety.”
“This is a crisis situation, but it needs a plan, not a knee-jerk spend reaction,” Meuser said.

[eh, I think spending will be involved unless the congressman can waive a wand]

Notably, when Minnesota's I-35 bridge collapsed in 2007, "the House of Representatives and the US Senate voted unanimously for $250 million in emergency funding for Minnesota, and the bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 6, just days after the collapse."

wing2000 said:

Will Congress support funding when they return to session?

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told Fox Business on Thursday it was “kind of outrageous immediately for Biden to express on this tragedy the idea that he’s going to use federal funds to pay for it in entirety.”
“This is a crisis situation, but it needs a plan, not a knee-jerk spend reaction,” Meuser said.

[eh, I think spending will be involved unless the congressman can waive a wand]

Notably, when Minnesota's I-35 bridge collapsed in 2007, "the House of Representatives and the US Senate voted unanimously for $250 million in emergency funding for Minnesota, and the bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 6, just days after the collapse."

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www.cnn.com

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But that was different. For reasons.

Arcangl86 said:

But that was different. For reasons.

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You mean (R)easons?