The steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge lies in the water after it collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP.
Washington: Six workers who died when a container ship struck a bridge in Maryland 20 months ago might have survived the disaster if they'd been alerted immediately, US safety officials said Tuesday.
One minute and 29 seconds elapsed between the time police were told to block bridge-bound traffic and the moment the bridge collapsed, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said, as investigative findings were presented and endorsed at a public meeting.
Had they been notified at about the same time police were, "the highway workers may have had sufficient time to drive to a portion of the bridge that did not collapse," officials said.
On March 26, 2024, the Dali, a 984-foot Singapore-flagged container ship, suffered a series of electrical problems and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in Maryland, which collapsed like a house of cards.
Six workers on the deck of the bridge, all Latin American immigrants, fell to their deaths.
The NTSB found that the "probable cause" of the disaster was loss of electrical power due to a loose signal wire connection, resulting in the vessel's loss of propulsion and steering as it approached the bridge.
Maryland authorities had failed to conduct a vulnerability assessment of the bridge -- according to a previous NTSB report published in March -- which would have set the stage for repairs, the latest report said.
"Also contributing to the loss of life was the lack of effective and immediate communications to notify the highway workers to evacuate the bridge," it said.
The NTSB has compiled a list of about a dozen American bridges that are at risk of collapse in the event of a collision with an ocean-going vessel.
They include both spans of a bridge across the Chesapeake Bay east of Washington, two bridges in the Philadelphia area and four over the Mississippi River in the southern state of Louisiana.
Vulnerability assessments are still underway for about 30 other bridges out of 68 that the NTSB earlier identified as potentially at risk of collapse in a similar scenario.
On Monday, Maryland authorities said that the cost of repair of the Francis Scott Key Bridge had more than doubled to between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, with completion now envisioned in 2030 instead of 2028.
