Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Police Presume Six Missing Persons Dead

• Authorities search for vehicles, workers in the river
• President Biden assures of rebuilding crucial structure

Maryland State Police say the six persons reported missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, have been presumed dead.

The Police interim report comes as rescuers intensify their search for the missing person, even as local authorities confirmed that two others have been pulled from the wreckage of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge that collapsed on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, after being struck by a cargo ship.

According to the authorities, the accident sent several vehicles and eight construction workers into the Patapsco River, adding that two people were however rescued later in the day.

Aligning with the Police reports, a senior executive at Brawner Builders, the employer of the construction workers, Jeffrey Pritzker, said the other six were presumed dead given the water’s depth and the length of time since the crash occurred.

This is against the backdrop of assurances by Maryland officials that the recovery effort will continue tomorrow (Wednesday) morning with a team of divers. Also, Pritzker confirmed that the crew was working in the middle of the bridge when it came apart. No bodies have been recovered.

“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said, adding; “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”

With reports indicating that all 22 crewmembers onboard the Dali, the ship that struck the bridge, were reported safe, the White House said President Joe Biden had spoken to Federal, State, and Local officials as part of the continuing response to the collapse of the bridge.

It listed the officials to include Pete Buttigieg, the US Secretary of Transportation; Wes Moore, the Democratic Governor of Maryland; the two Democratic US senators from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin; and the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott. Moore told reporters the bridge, built in 1977, was “fully up to code” before being struck by the ship.

Officials said the ship issued a mayday as it went off course and seemed to lose power, which Baltimore officials said allowed them to prevent more vehicles from coming onto the bridge. The ship then appeared to catch fire as part of the bridge collapsed over it, sending plumes of thick, black smoke into the air.

The temperature in the river was about 47F (8C) in the early hours of Tuesday, according to a buoy that collects data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. From a vantage point near the entrance to the bridge, jagged remnants of its steel frame were visible protruding from the water, with the on-ramp ending abruptly where the span once began.

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, President Biden said on Tuesday afternoon; “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time, we have no other indication. No other reason to believe there’s any intentional act here.”

Pledging that the US federal government would pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge in Baltimore, which has also halted activity at a major port for the country, the US President said; “I intend that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge and I expect the Congress to support my effort”.

However, President Biden while pledging to visit Baltimore soon, said; “We’re not leaving until this job is done”. Asked why the government should pay and not Grace Ocean, the owners of the Singapore-registered ship, Biden said; “That could be, but we’re not going to wait for that to happen. We’re going to pay for it to get the bridge rebuilt and opened.”

The President then left Washington for a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina with Pete Buttigieg, who currently serves as the 19th Secretary of Transportation, scheduled to travel to Baltimore immediately.

A reporter from the Baltimore Banner said that the half-dozen people who had been presumed missing were construction workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico who were in their 30s and 40s, with spouses and children.

“All of them came to the city for a better life … not necessarily for themselves, but for the loved ones they left behind in their home countries,” the Banner’s reporter wrote.

Also commenting on the unfortunate incident, Jesús Campos, who described himself as a co-worker of the victims, said “They are all hard-working, humble men”.

However, emerging reports showed the same ship that struck the bridge was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, when it hit a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.

A later inspection of the Dali on 27 June carried out in San Antonio, Chile, found the vessel had “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships. The inspection specified that there was a deficiency related to gauges and thermometers.

But confronted with the report, a spokesperson for the Dali’s owners declined to comment or deny its contents. – With The Guardian reports