Container Ship Strikes Scott Key Bridge in MD

Preliminary Information:

1. Ships should be under the control (conn) of a State Licensed Pilot (2 Pilots reported to be onboard this ship).
2. Pilots are not in command. Captain of the ship is in command.
3. Likely ship lost propulsion or steering when approaching the bridge.
4. One question is if the anchors were ready to let go (may or may not be effective in stopping the ship depending upon ships speed).
5. Bridge support structures, like many in the U.S. are not protected from ship strikes.
6. U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board will likely be investigating.
7. This unfortunate event will bring forward many questions about ship navigation practices, including: active tug escorts, duties of each pilot when 2 are aboard, speed of ships approaching bridges, emergency response, ISM Code audit of ship, testing of ships gear before getting underway, readiness & capability of anchors, enough manning on bow (ready to drop anchor), design of bridge pilings for ship strikes, and more.
8. Unfortunately, from a safety engineering perspective, this incident was predictable. You have large moving objects (subject to many failure modes) with no bridge structure protection. It is not a "fail safe system". Thus the risk was and is present (low probability & high consequence).

RIP to those that perished in this case.
 
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Wwwwowww. Is that a high auto traffic volume bridge? From the time stamp, it’s about 1:30 am. Could have been a whole different scenario during the day.

That’s shocking to see. RIP indeed.
 
“The container ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday was chartered by Maersk and carrying their customers' cargo, the Danish shipping company told CNN.

"We are horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected," The company said in its statement.
Click to expand...
The company, which has a full name of A.P. Moller - Maersk, said no company crew and personnel were onboard the vessel. It said the ship, DALI, is operated by charter vessel company Synergy Group.

"We are closely following the investigations conducted by authorities and Synergy, and we will do our utmost to keep our customers informed," the statement said.”
 
Don't Give Up the Ship said:
Preliminary Information:

1. Ships should be under the control (conn) of a State Licensed Pilot (2 Pilots reported to be onboard this ship).
2. Pilots are not in command. Captain of the ship is in command.
3. Likely ship lost propulsion or steering when approaching the bridge.
4. One question is if the anchors were ready to let go (may or may not be effective in stopping the ship depending upon ships speed).
5. Bridge support structures, like many in the U.S. are not protected from ship strikes.
6. U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board will likely be investigating.
7. This unfortunate event will bring forward many questions about ship navigation practices, including: active tug escorts, duties of each pilot when 2 are aboard, speed of ships approaching bridges, emergency response, ISM Code audit of ship, testing of ships gear before getting underway, readiness & capability of anchors, enough manning on bow (ready to drop anchor), design of bridge pilings for ship strikes, and more.
8. Unfortunately, from a safety engineering perspective, this incident was predictable. You have large moving objects (subject to many failure modes) with no bridge structure protection. It is not a "fail safe system". Thus the risk was and is present (low probability & high consequence).

RIP to those that perished in this case.
Click to expand...
Thank you….. This is good information to understand as this all unfolds.
 
Awful news to wake up to this morning. Checking out vessel finder you can see many cargo ships on either side of the collapsed bridge now backing up.
 
Don't Give Up the Ship said:
Preliminary Information:

1. Ships should be under the control (conn) of a State Licensed Pilot (2 Pilots reported to be onboard this ship).
2. Pilots are not in command. Captain of the ship is in command.
3. Likely ship lost propulsion or steering when approaching the bridge.
4. One question is if the anchors were ready to let go (may or may not be effective in stopping the ship depending upon ships speed).
5. Bridge support structures, like many in the U.S. are not protected from ship strikes.
6. U.S. Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board will likely be investigating.
7. This unfortunate event will bring forward many questions about ship navigation practices, including: active tug escorts, duties of each pilot when 2 are aboard, speed of ships approaching bridges, emergency response, ISM Code audit of ship, testing of ships gear before getting underway, readiness & capability of anchors, enough manning on bow (ready to drop anchor), design of bridge pilings for ship strikes, and more.
8. Unfortunately, from a safety engineering perspective, this incident was predictable. You have large moving objects (subject to many failure modes) with no bridge structure protection. It is not a "fail safe system". Thus the risk was and is present (low probability & high consequence).

RIP to those that perished in this case.
Click to expand...
Thank you.

Several years ago I sailed a boat from the Bahamas to Annapolis. At the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay vessels were lined up like airplanes on the tarmac at O'hare. I am assuming that some of them were bound for Baltimore, so I have about a hundred questions. These are just a few:

Any rough estimate as to how long shipping in and out of the Port of Baltimore will be suspended?

It looks like VW and BMW have docks east of the Bridge. Can anything other than cars be unloaded there?

At any given time, how many large vessels would be on that stretch of the bay North of Hampton Roads? What do they do? Sit and wait?

What about the ships that haven't yet entered to bay? Or those 2, 3, 5, 10 ten days out? Can other Eastern seaboard ports pick up the slack?

Thanks in advance.
 
Apparantly the container ship notified MD it had lost control

abcnews.go.com

Ship lost propulsion, warned of collision, CISA report says

A container ship struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

Couldn’t there be an alert type siren on bridges? Similar to tornado warnings? To at least alert to danger being on the bridge? And maybe some sort of visual to ‘do not enter’ for a quick alert to not proceed onto the bridge for traffic? Seems like that would at least help potential issues. I suffer to think how different this would have been during peak traffic. Seems like there could be some sort of warning system. I know it’s not much, but seems like an easy add that would be helpful. Especially if this small bit of advance warning from this ship occurred.
 
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justdoit19 said:
Apparantly the container ship notified MD it had lost control

abcnews.go.com

Ship lost propulsion, warned of collision, CISA report says

A container ship struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

Couldn’t there be an alert type siren on bridges? Similar to tornado warnings? To at least alert to danger being on the bridge? And maybe some sort of visual to ‘do not enter’ for a quick alert to not proceed onto the bridge for traffic? Seems like that would at least help potential issues. I suffer to think how different this would have been during peak traffic. Seems like there could be some sort of warning system. I know it’s not much, but seems like an easy add that would be helpful. Especially if this small bit of advance warning from this ship occurred.
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This is a interesting suggestion, but I don't think it is as simple as just a sign at the end of the bridge. Lets be honest, alot of drivers would ignore a sign, so you need a barrier. The barrier would need sirens to be going before it drops(think RR crossings) on a interstate with cars going 60mph likely at the slowest. Then you have who is in control of putting down the barrier. Who decides when it goes down? Ship, pilot, DOT, state, city, police? Do you have someone watching the bridge 24/7 near a button? Alot of moving parts.

Much easier to place a ship blockade in front of these bridge supports. May not stop support from getting hit, but might stop the bridge collapse.
 
... saw this one ... just wondering 🤔 if this can happen to Bay Bridge by the yard. We go through there constantly. Keeps me focusing on the "legacy" binder up to date.
 
Ihavenoidea said:
This is a interesting suggestion, but I don't think it is as simple as just a sign at the end of the bridge. Lets be honest, alot of drivers would ignore a sign, so you need a barrier. The barrier would need sirens to be going before it drops(think RR crossings) on a interstate with cars going 60mph likely at the slowest. Then you have who is in control of putting down the barrier. Who decides when it goes down? Ship, pilot, DOT, state, city, police? Do you have someone watching the bridge 24/7 near a button? Alot of moving parts.

Much easier to place a ship blockade in front of these bridge supports. May not stop support from getting hit, but might stop the bridge collapse.
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And honestly, thinking more about it, it’s probably not practical from the legal side. Opening up more pieces to liability, etc.

And by no means did I mean to imply it’s ’as simple as this’. More of an ‘in addition to’ element of notification. Seems like it’s SOMETHING that could be done. Idk. We shut off interstate access here in a moments notice when blizzards hit and make the road unsafe.

It’s haunting to see the headlights go across the bridge. Knowing some made it, and some didn’t. I cannot stop thinking about this 🥺
 
justdoit19 said:
Apparantly the container ship notified MD it had lost control

abcnews.go.com

Ship lost propulsion, warned of collision, CISA report says

A container ship struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

Couldn’t there be an alert type siren on bridges? Similar to tornado warnings? To at least alert to danger being on the bridge? And maybe some sort of visual to ‘do not enter’ for a quick alert to not proceed onto the bridge for traffic? Seems like that would at least help potential issues. I suffer to think how different this would have been during peak traffic. Seems like there could be some sort of warning system. I know it’s not much, but seems like an easy add that would be helpful. Especially if this small bit of advance warning from this ship occurred.
Click to expand...

Somewhere I read that they were shutting down the bridge as it happened, explaining what appears to be a fortunate lull in traffic the few seconds before the collapse. No clue how that occurs or where they were in that process.
 
This is also a case of a immovable object versus a unstoppable force. There may not be alot that could have been done to stop this event. The ship loosing control right at that time and location is just the absolute worse case scenario(other than it happening at rush hour). There will be some questions and answers needed, and I'm sure that something will go up to try and limit this from happening again. Hopefully it will be helpful.
 
justme said:
Somewhere I read that they were shutting down the bridge as it happened, explaining what appears to be a fortunate lull in traffic the few seconds before the collapse. No clue how that occurs or where they were in that process.
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"A mayday call was issued before a container ship struck a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore — a decision Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said "saved lives" ahead of the bridge's collapse early on the morning of March 26.

The crew on the vessel were able to notify authorities of a power issue and that they had lost power on the ship, which alerted officials who were able to stop some vehicles from crossing the bridge before the ship collided with it, Moore said."
 
justme said:
Somewhere I read that they were shutting down the bridge as it happened, explaining what appears to be a fortunate lull in traffic the few seconds before the collapse. No clue how that occurs or where they were in that process.
Click to expand...
Yes, rewatching I did notice that the headlights stopped.

My heart aches for the State construction workers
 
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