I watch the show engineering disasters occasionally and this really brings that home.
Happened about 1:30am this morning. They are currently looking for missing people. What an immense tragedy.
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Shocking! I hope they’re able to rescue everyone who fell into the water.
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I think of engineering disasters as being design failures. There’s no way you can protect a bridge from the impact of a freighter that’s almost 1000 feet long. It’s a disaster but I wouldn’t call it an engineering disaster.
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It’s horrible. I try not to watch the TVs here at the gym but I looked up and saw that. That’s a major bridge! I hope they are able to find everyone.
So horrible!!! We drove over that bridge all the time. It’s my husband’s biggest fear.
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My next thoughts after hoping everyone is ok were. someone is going to be in trouble. And I’d hate to be the engineers who have to figure out to mitigate traffic and rebuild something asap.
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My recollection is in that part of the harbor, the ships are supposed to have a harbor pilot on board and guide boats (not sure if the technical term) leading them in and out.
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Just read on BBC that there were two harbor pilots on board and that it could have been a mechanical failure on the ship leading to the crash. Just so absolutely awful and terrifying.
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The tie in to the engineering disasters show is more regarding having seen bridges collapse as fast as this on those shows, not necessarily blaming it on engineering.
However, there was an engineering disaster show that was eerily similar regarding a boat striking a bridge and it collapsing. One of the preventative measures installed after reconstruction was a separate structure built on either side of the bridge supports away from the bridge that any ship would hit first instead of ramming directly into the bridge support. Perhaps at such a high traffic port as Baltimore, a similar setup would have been appropriate and helped in this situation. Hopefully when they rebuild they will look at adding extra protection, just in case.
There was a 1200’ clear span over the shipping channel so plenty of room for protective options.
Latest reporting is the ship had lost power prior to the incident.
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I believe they are searching for at least 7 people. There are a few vehicles in the water and some construction work was going on. Just terrible.
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I’m listening to the Baltimore City Fire scanner right now. There are 2965 people listening.
I saw reports that they’ve located vehicles in the water. I believe there were 8 construction workers on the bridge. Only 1 has been rescued.
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Prayers for all. <3 It’s sort of shocking.
This is not going to bode well for so many people who have gephyrophobia - a fear of bridges. 
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Tragic.
I remember a few of these other ship-hitting-bridge incidents:
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Another previous incident: The Costco Busan rammed the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland in 2007. Most of the damage was due to an oil spill from the damaged part of the ship, but there was some damage that needed to be repaired on the bridge fender.
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I have never ridden on a roller coaster, I never will. Yet driving over a high bridge is not a problem for me. Odd. I have driven over the Mystic-Tobin Bridge in Boston a thousand times since I was a kid, even though it is 74 years old and the support columns show rusting rebar protruding through crumbling concrete.
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Escaping from a vehicle sinking in water can be more difficult than expected, since water pressure will resist opening the doors until the water fills up the inside (when it may be difficult to hold one’s breath long enough to avoid drowning while trying to open the door). If the vehicle has manual windows (or a manually operated sliding sunroof), escape is less difficult. If the vehicle has power windows, it is necessary to open the windows before the power opening mechanism fails due to water submersion. A convertible with the top down should also be easy to escape from.
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When you pair the known issues you mentioned above with the disorientation inherent to a surprise bridge collapse that plunges your vehicle into a body of water, potentially upside down, surrounded by steel, chances of survival become bleak.
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They are reporting that the ship had lost power.
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If you watch the video, you can see the lights go out on the ship shortly before it hits the pylon. The lights come back on right before it hits, but I guess it was too late at that point. Timing of the power loss couldn’t have been worse.
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The news conference on now is confirming the mayday call and the power outage on the freighter. Some videos show not only the power out but black smoke coming from the ship.
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