The collapse of the Baltimore bridge: what is known and what are the unknowns?

A few hours later the cargo ship “Dali” crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in the city of Baltimore, Uncertainties persist about what happened in the early hours of this Tuesday, on one of the busiest bridges in the state of Maryland.

At least seven people are missing, two have been rescued and rescue teams are working against time in search of possible survivors of a tragedy that could add more victims.

The port of Baltimore, one of the largest and busiest on the planet, remained closed until further notice, but the loading and unloading of trucks remains operational.

When and how did the cargo accident happen?

The accident occurred around 01:30 local time (2:30 in Argentina), when the cargo ship “Dali” collided with that bridge built in 1977 and caused its collapse.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld told reporters the low temperature of the water (about 4°C), its depth, about 15 meters, and darkness when the event occurred make rescue work difficult.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency due to the landslide, which blocked parts of the I-95 road, the most important road in the eastern United States.

How many people could have died?

At 8:30 local time (9:30 in Buenos Aires), a helicopter and three coast guard boats searched the Patapsco River for at least seven officially confirmed missing people.

Two people were rescued by emergency services and the number of victims could be high more than twenty, given that There were maintenance crews on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

Authorities indicated in a news conference that federal, local and state agents are participating in the bomb used to deal with what Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called a “tragedy” and confirmed that Radar identified the cars underwater.

The area is closed and the press they can only access about 1.6 kilometers away local.

The Singaporean company Synergy Group, which manages the shipconfirmed that none of the ship’s 22 crew members were injured and assured that it is cooperating with the authorities to determine the causes of the accident.

Could this have been intentional?

Although the causes of the accident are still unknown, Baltimore police sees no signs of a terrorist attack or an intentional event.

The FBI participates in the investigation open, but this does not imply that there are signs of a terrorist attack. “In any type of accident like this he would be involved,” Wiedefeld said.

US President Joe Biden has been informed of the collapse and is coordinating with Maryland state authorities and federal agencies, the White House said.

The federal agency responsible for investigating transportation accidents, NTSB, will investigate what problems or failures led to this serious accident.

Where did it happen

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is the largest bridge in this city in the state of Maryland, it is 2,632 meters long and more than 11 million vehicles pass over it per year.

Immortalized by the series ‘The Wire’the bridge was named in honor of poet Francis Scott Keyauthor of the lyrics of the American anthem, and some 31,000 vehicles per day.

Its construction began in 1972 and was inaugurated on March 23, 1977. The structure crosses the lower part of the river Patapsco between Hawkins Point and Sollers Point and Highway I-695 (Baltimore Beltway) passes through it.

The collapsed bridge is, according to the Historic Sites organization, the heir of the one built between 1833 and 1843 with stone pillars, demolished in 1915, and of the one that replaced it, a concrete arch inaugurated in 1923 already with the name by Francis Scott Key because the artist lived in an area close to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The bridge was originally known as the “Outer Harbor Crossing”.

Baltimore, an important seaport before the American Revolution, located on the Chesapeake Bay, It is the most populated city in the state of Maryland, with just over 600,000 inhabitants in the urban center and 2,700,000 in its metropolitan area.