Viviana MazzaCORRIERE DELLA SERA / EL MUNDO
CORRIERE DELLA SERA / THE WORLD
Updated Wednesday, March 27, 2024-17:04
USA They suspend the search after the collapse of the Baltimore bridge and the missing are presumed dead
The six workers missing in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore were all immigrants from
Central America
who came to the United States in search of a better life. They died while repairing potholes in the asphalt of the bridge, dedicated to the poet who wrote the United States national anthem, at 1:30 in the morning.
Among them was
Miguel Luna
, 49, Salvadoran, father of six, who arrived in Maryland 19 years ago; His wife, María del Carmen Castellón, maintained hope until the last moment of seeing him emerge from the cold waters of the Patapsco River.
At night, after 14 hours, the rescue operations were officially concluded, and if the divers return today it will only be to
try to recover the bodies
and give the families the opportunity to say goodbye.
Two of the eight workers who were working that night on the bridge were saved in the early hours, although it is not clear how: one of them was immediately discharged from the hospital, while the other returned home yesterday evening.
The workers were working in the center of the bridge
, according to their employer Jeffrey Pritzker of the Brawner Builders company, when the impact of the merchant ship against one of the two pillars caused the entire structure to collapse in just ten seconds. The ship reported that it lost control before impact and the agents had just 90 seconds to stop the traffic of new cars on the Key Bridge.
Jesús Campos
, also a worker at Brawner Builders, does not believe his colleagues could have been saved: "It happened in the blink of an eye." "We are low-income families, our relatives expect our help in the countries where we come from," Campos told the Baltimore Banner newspaper. His six colleagues were between thirty and forty years old, all with children,
from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras
, he explained to journalists.
"They worked hard, they were humble people
. "
"Wonderful people who loved their families," added his employer, Pritzker. "This is a terrible day." It was "a terrible accident," President Joe Biden said, promising that he will move "heaven and earth" and that the bridge will be completely rebuilt with federal funds.
The merchant ship "Dali", with the Singapore flag, weighing 95 thousand gross tons and with a length of 288 meters, was leaving the port at a speed of 8 knots when it crashed into one of the two pillars that supported the entire ship. structure. One expert explained to CNN that it was
as if the Chrysler Building had collapsed horizontally
onto the bridge. At the wheel was an operator who knew the port, but according to the first reconstructions, an engine malfunction (the lights also went out twice before impact) led to a loss of control of the ship. The anchors were thrown into the water, but they did not prevent the collision.
The relatively low number of victims could be related to the schedule, but also to the fact that
the ship issued the emergency signal ("mayday")
after losing control, which allowed traffic on the bridge to be closed in seconds, where 30,000 vehicles pass through a day, saving lives.
"They are heroes
," is what Maryland Governor Wes Moore called them, referring to the agents and officials of the Transportation Authority. "I want one of you to go to the south side, and one to the north side.
Stop all traffic towards the Key Bridge.
There is a ship on the way that just lost the ability to maneuver, we have to stop all traffic": it is a Dramatic passage from the radio recording of the Maryland Transportation Authority, broadcast by the American media. The recording continues: "Once they arrive, I will take the workers to the Key Bridge..." Then another voice is heard: "The whole bridge just collapsed. Start, start... The whole bridge just collapsed."
The incident paralyzes one of the most important ports on the east coast of the United States, the main port for automobiles and other light vehicles (750,000 in 2023), with trade valued at
80 billion dollars
and employing 15,000 people. Reconstruction of the bridge will take time and must be preceded by the recovery of the debris.
What went wrong? In the past, the company that operates the ship, Synergy Marine,
has been sued 4 times in federal courts
for negligence and issues related to worker safety, according to US media. An inspection of the "Dali" last year in a port in Chile concluded that the ship had a "propulsion" problem, exactly what would have caused the loss of control on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Investigators for now only say that they will examine both the operation of the ship and possible structural deficiencies of the bridge.
More than 45,000 bridges in the United States are in poor condition
, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, and there is a problem with aging infrastructure. But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who immediately arrived in Baltimore, tried to calm concerns: "I'm not sure any bridge can withstand a direct hit from a ship of this size. This was no ordinary bridge. It's a of the cathedrals of American infrastructure. It was part of the landscape before many of us were born.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the bridge was "in order," although other officials say it will take time to determine whether structural deficiencies have been reported. The truth is that
it is a structure from 1977
, when measures "against collision" with boats, which today are massive, were not taken into account. The design means that, with one of the two pillars missing, collapse is inevitable. It is not the first time that a boat has crashed into a bridge, both in America and elsewhere (February 22 in China, with 5 deaths). One of the measures taken is to create barriers around the pillars, which however did not appear to be immediately around those of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This was recently done for another bridge in Maryland, at a cost of 100 million dollars.