“Victims were trapped in their vehicle”: Two bodies recovered after bridge collapse in Baltimore

Divers found a red pickup truck about 7.5 meters deep in the water at just before 10 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday morning, among the rubble of the bridge. “The divers recovered the bodies of two victims of this tragedy who were trapped in the vehicle,” said Police Chief Ronald L. Butler, who added that the families of the two victims, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentez, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26), have been informed.

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The four other workers who were working on the bridge are still missing. Among them are Miguel Luna (49) and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval (38). It is assumed that they did not survive the disaster. The search operation for their bodies has been halted, Butler said. Due to the bridge sections around the cars and the large amount of concrete and debris in the water, “the divers can no longer navigate around safely,” the police chief said. “We have exhausted all search options.”

The focus of the emergency services is now on clearing the rubble, the police chief said. The salvage of the ship, which is stuck under the collapsed bridge, will be a difficult operation.

Harmful substances in water

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) meanwhile reported that 56 containers of harmful substances were on board the ship – containing 754 tons of corrosive and flammable substances, including lithium-ion batteries. Some were damaged and some ended up in the water. A “shine” was observed on the water, NTSB CEO Jennifer Homendy said in a news conference. The coast guard had previously stated that there was no safety risk.

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According to Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the intention is to build a new bridge over the Patapsco River. The priority is the reopening of shipping lanes to minimize the economic damage caused by the disaster.

The container ship Dali collided with a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday night, which subsequently collapsed.

Reconstruction

At 1:24 a.m. and 59 seconds local time, multiple alarms went off on the ship, according to the NTSB. Shortly afterwards the ship lost power for an unknown reason. At 01:26:39, the pilot requested assistance from nearby tugboats and local transportation authorities were notified. At 01:27:04 the pilot ordered to drop anchor.

At 01:27:25, transport authorities halted traffic across the bridge. Because two of their teams – one on either side of the bridge – were already present due to road works, they were immediately able to urge some workers to leave the bridge and stop cars from driving on it.

At around 1:29 a.m. the ship hit the bridge at about 13 km per hour. At 01:29:39 the pilot reported to the Coast Guard that the bridge had collapsed. At the time of the collision, eight people were still on the 2.6 kilometer long bridge. Two of them were found alive, one of whom was seriously injured.

The six workers who went missing were filling holes in the road surface on the bridge at the time of the collision. They came from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. There were 23 people on board the ship: 21 crew members and 2 pilots. They are being interrogated.

Bridge was “in good condition”

The investigation into the precise circumstances on board the MV Dali is still ongoing. It would be investigated, among other things, whether “dirty fuel” played a role: this could possibly have caused a power outage. The ship was flying the flag of Singapore, which has already announced it will conduct its own investigation.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge, built in the 1970s, was a so-called “fracture-critical bridge,” NTSB Chief Homendy explained. This means that if one part fails, the entire bridge could collapse. There are still more than 17,000 such bridges in the US. Newer bridges usually have “redundancy” built in, allowing other components to carry the load.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was inspected in May 2023 and was found to be in good condition.

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