• Update On The Key Bridge Collapse

    March 28, 2024
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    Coast Guard Officials Admiral Pete Gautier and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg discuss hazardous materials on the container ship Dali that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Tuesday.

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    In that time, two victims have been identified and the crew of the ship involved are being interviewed. Recovery efforts were suspended Wednesday due to the murky conditions of the waters of the Patapsco River.

    The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, were pulled from a red truck submerged in the river, authorities said Wednesday. 

    NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said 56 containers onboard the Dali carried 764 tons of hazardous materials, including corrosives, flammables and items like lithium-ion batteries. Some containers, she said, have been breached. “We have seen sheen on the waterway,” she said.

    The Key Bridge is a key link between Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties and also the major roadway for trucks heading to pick up cargo from ships coming into the harbor. A fuel facility near the bridge is also a major way that trucks gas up as they leave the port.

    Rebuilding the bridge will take over a year and cost millions of dollars. The disruption to the supply chain and to local traffic will be massive according to local authorities.

    The Key Bridge is one of the thousands of bridges across the United States that were built without "redundancies" which protect them from collapse in the case of an accident like the one on Tuesday.

    “We have exhausted all search efforts in the areas around this wreckage,” Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said in a Wednesday night news conference. "Once the salvage effort takes place and that superstructure is removed, those same divers are going to go back out there and bring those people closure,” he said. “There’s no definitive timeline. … Please be patient.” 

    Of the eight people in the construction crew that were on the bridge when the collision occurred, two were rescued. Two have been recovered and identified and six still remain in the wreckage until they can be recovered.

    State and Federal officials have stated that they are also dedicated to recovering the victims, clearing the wreckage, and opening the shipping channel as soon as possible.

    While many are trying to explain various theories about what happened Tuesday, authorities have not released any further explanations.

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