Baltimore: Emergency dispatchers prevent major disaster after bridge accident

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One day after the Baltimore bridge accident: At least six people are still missing; authorities assume they died in the Patapsco River.

The fact that not many more people died is also thanks to the quick reaction of some local authorities and traffic police. After the ship's crew received the emergency call, they did everything they could to stop the traffic - as the now published radio traffic documents.

“I need one of you on the south side and one of you on the north side to stop all traffic on the Key Bridge. There's a ship approaching that just lost control, and until they get that under control we're going to have to stop all traffic."

»I'm on my way to the south side, (Inaudible). I'm holding up traffic now. I was driving, we stopped in front of the bridge, so I can stop all the parallel traffic.”

Dispatchers also tried to warn construction workers who were doing maintenance work on the bridge.

“Is there a crew on the bridge right now?”

“Should I stop traffic on this side now?”

“Yes, if we can stop traffic. Just make sure there is no one on the bridge. I'm not sure where... there's a crew out there and you might want to notify the foreman and see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily."

“As soon as the other unit gets here, I will head to the bridge. All traffic will be stopped at this time. Once you get here, I'll pick up the workers on the Key Bridge and then stop the outer loop.”

A little later the ship rams the bridge pillar.

»C13 headquarters. The whole bridge just collapsed. Go Go! To all. The entire bridge just collapsed."

“The report is correct, that’s correct.”

“Do we know if all traffic has stopped?”

»I can't make it to the other side, the bridge has collapsed. We'll have to send someone to the other side. (Inaudible) I'm asking you to come here and stop the northbound traffic on the Key Bridge."

»C13. I’m stopping all northbound traffic.”

It is now clear that the clean-up work alone could take months, and one of the most important ports on the US East Coast is closed. Joe Biden's administration has announced help to rebuild the bridge.