Experts discuss Baltimore bridge collapse investigation, early findings

Several experts joined CBS News early Tuesday to discuss new details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. The bridge collapsed after a column was hit by a large container ship. Here's what we know so far about the investigation.

#news #breakingnews

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Anybody thinking that the condition of the bridge would allow it to withstand the force of a 900-ft container ship is an idiot. Even if it was an 11 out of 10 condition it would fold. Y'all have no idea the amount of energy behind that mass. Combined with the fact that it's a bridge... Not a damn safety net. It was not designed to take that impact

[JanosCastro]

The reporter is questioning the state of the bridge maintenance. Looking at the mass of the ship it would not matter whether the bridge was in excellent condition. This is a ship problem, not a bridge problem.

[diligentmindz]

The kinetic energy of a fully loaded 900ft container ship traveling at 8knots, is around 2.5 times the kinetic energy of an Airbus a320 flying at cruising speed. That’s a lot of energy!

[evaristoquiroz]

Listen to structural engineers not internet trolls and armchair quarterbacks.

[leeselset]

What it sounds like to me is this ship's crew did everything they could, they just lost critical systems at the worst possible time.

[crazytrain]

That captain really did exhaust massive effort to try and stop that ship. Within that 60 second time-frame, at that speed....and still managed to recycle ship power twice, full power reversed, and dropped early anchor....because his anchor was dragged for a while before hitting the bridge. Hats off to that captain for at least trying to prevent this from happening.

[spyrule]

As terrible as this is, it could have been SO much worse if it had happened at 9am....

[stephanieadams]

Kudos to everyone for sending out Mayday notice to warn people to not drive onto the bridge and get everyone possible off the bridge. This could have been much, much worse.

[reactriot]

Why are they talking about the condition of the bridge? It could have been brand new, excellent condition l, and it would have collapsed the same way. Bridges aren’t designed to withstand an impact from a 150, 000 ton cargo ship.

[booterone]

Possibly other port cities should look at having all large ships like this be escorted in and out of port with tug boats pushing the ships past these fragile bridges. It is almost impossible to design bridges with dolphins or similar options to actually stop a ship of this size. Best thing is it happened at 1:30 AM instead of right after lunch.

[diyallthings]

That bridge collapsed like a piece of paper. Life is so delicate 😞

[channeldirty]

It sounds like the ship is more important than the people still lost, I’m in Baltimore and nobody knows what’s going on…families are waiting around to hear from family members…this is tragic…Baltimore City needs your prayers more now than ever…and we’ve always needed them…God Bless I pray for you

[martindzincioloski]

People don't see the amount of wieght this ship is carreing. Each container that is loaded can wiegh up to 50, 000 lbs. Muliply that be 100 or more plus the wieght of the ship. At 8 nots, which is about 5 mph. There is no stopping this ship in less than 5 thousand ft.

[solracer]

Not well reported is that the bridge was closed as soon as the mayday went out which is why there were so few vehicles on the bridge vs the traffic you can see at the beginning of the video.

[madhtrr]

Guys. There is no way a piling will withstand a 100, 000 ton ship at ~12 kts. It will either be destroyed or yanked off of its foundations. Whether the "health index" is 0 or 100. Comon man.

[JulieScanlan-sd]

😢 Very sad.
My thoughts and prayers are with you all
at this horrendous time.

[charlesh]

This is a massive undertaking for rescue and safety missions to clean up this disaster. All first responders are doing an excellent job with this.

[josephconstante]

This reminds me of the ship that lost power in New Orleans in 1996 and took out half the Riverwalk Mall. Fortunately that one had no loss of life. This is sad😢

[tonyk]

Barring some unimaginably stupid act of sheer harbor pilot incompetence (which seems highly unlikely), the cargo ship likely lost propulsion and steering capability shortly before the collision, and it had no way to stop nor control its forward momentum in time.
Captains and harbor pilots know their line of work very well and don't usually steer or guide their ships into stationary objects they could crash into.

[arc]

It's good they notified transportation but I feel bad for the construction crew. I think a year ago there was another freak accident on the same highway where a car crashed on top of 6 construction workers.