‘Heroes’ scrambled to stop traffic before Baltimore bridge collapsed

“The whole bridge just fell down,” a frantic officer said in the released audio. “Start, start whoever, everybody … the whole bridge just collapsed.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott hailed first responders for their quick response. “Literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes,” he said.

When the container ship Dali crashed into the support pillar after losing power at around 1.30am on Tuesday, it caused a long span of the bridge, a major link in the region’s transport networks, to crumple into the Patapsco River.

At least eight people went into the water. Two were rescued but the other six, part of a construction crew that had been filling potholes on the bridge, remain missing and are presumed dead.

Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries. The Honduran man was identified as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandova.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, recovering the data recorder yesterday, and ship traffic entering and leaving the Port of Baltimore has been suspended indefinitely.

Capt Michael Burns Jr of the Maritime Centre for Responsible Energy said bringing a ship into or out of ports in restricted waters with limited room to manoeuvre is “one of the most technically challenging and demanding things that we do”.

“So there really is few things that are scarier than a loss of power in restricted waters,” he said.

And when a ship loses propulsion and steering, “then it’s really at the mercy of the wind and the current”.

Video showed the ship moving at what Maryland governor Wes Moore said was about 9mph toward the 1.6-mile bridge. Traffic was still moving across the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape disaster with only seconds to spare.

Police said there is no evidence anyone went into the water other than the workers, though they had not discounted the possibility.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it was too soon to give a time frame for clearing the channel, which is about 50 feet deep, while President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore soon and expects the federal government to pay the entire cost of rebuilding.

Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, said the impact happened while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports.

The firm said one crew member was treated at a hospital for a minor injury. The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd, and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.