Many questions remain about collision in the US, ‘crew was no longer in control’

Huge pieces of twisted steel in the water are the silent witnesses to the bridge accident in the American city of Baltimore. This morning Dutch time, a cargo ship collided with one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. In a few seconds, the steel bridge of approximately 2,500 meters collapsed.

At least seven vehicles fell into the water and six road workers who worked on the bridge are still missing. Two people were rescued from the icy water.

Out of control

How could it happen that the cargo ship on its way to Sri Lanka could simply collide with the bridge? According to the American ABC News, based on a US intelligence report, the ship “lost its propulsion” as it left the busy port of Baltimore.

Simply put: the crew no longer had control over the ship, which was approximately 290 meters long. According to the American police, there is no indication that the ship deliberately rammed the bridge. The crew had warned officials of a possible collision, ABC said. According to the VesselFinder site, the ship collided with a quay in Antwerp in 2016.

After the crew’s report, several cars that wanted to drive onto the bridge were stopped by the authorities. “The people who did that are heroes. They saved several lives,” says the governor of Maryland. Yet there were still several cars and people on the bridge at the fatal moment. It is not yet clear why they were not completed in time.

“What can be seen in any case is that the ship has gone off course for some reason,” says bridge expert Rob Vergoossen of engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV. “And in the end he was no longer able to avoid the pillar, resulting in this outcome.”

During the design of a bridge, shipping is amply taken into account. “Such a bridge is not designed to be able to turn such a heavy ship. With these types of bridges you initially try to see whether you can remove the pillars from the water. That is not the case here, because it is a is a very big bridge.”

The moment of the collision:

There must therefore be pillars in the water. This is accompanied by collision protection, a kind of guardrail. Vergoossen “cannot imagine” that this bridge did not have that protection. “It must protect such a bridge against a collision, or ensure that a ship changes course. The investigation will reveal why this did not work.”

Bridge expert Vergoossen points out, among other things, the age of the bridge. The bridge opened in the late 1970s. “Since then, the size of ships has increased enormously, with the result that collision protection must be much stronger than in the 1970s.”

The damage to the bridge during daylight: