My brother's a civil engineer, and his comment was (paraphrased) "yeah, we don't design bridges to withstand having a container ship ram directly into the pylons."
Also worth shouting out the human effort involved: the ship knew it was in trouble, called the relevant authorities, and the local government had shut down traffic on the bridge before it got hit!
It's sort of rare that we can say "look at the tragedy that clearly, undeniably would have happened if we didn't take safety measures and collective precautions," but it doesn't get much clearer than this.
It is loud and spectacular, and that there are people who are presumed dead now is a tragedy, and at the same time, that could have been so, so much worse.
At least it was the middle of the night and not rush hour. It could have been a much worse tragedy. But now, travel through that area will be a nightmare for a very long time and all those employed by the port operations in/around Baltimore will probably be laid off for weeks until the authorities can get that channel cleared of ship and bridge debris.
Alas, not the first time this has happened in the states as others on other sites have pointed out to me. Tampa, 1980, similar collision with 35 or so dead.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-03-27 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:44 am (UTC)It's sort of rare that we can say "look at the tragedy that clearly, undeniably would have happened if we didn't take safety measures and collective precautions," but it doesn't get much clearer than this.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 07:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 10:13 am (UTC)Alas, not the first time this has happened in the states as others on other sites have pointed out to me. Tampa, 1980, similar collision with 35 or so dead.
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Date: 2024-03-27 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-27 05:53 pm (UTC)I am astonished at the video quality, shot in the middle of the night as it was.