Motorists Drive Off Collapsed Bridge | Last Moments

The bridge has collapsed - but in the nighttime fog, some motorists don't realise until it's too late...

"The Tasman Bridge disaster occurred on the evening of 5 January 1975, in Hobart, the capital city of Australia's island state of Tasmania, when a bulk ore carrier travelling up the Derwent River collided with several pylons of the Tasman Bridge, causing a large section of the bridge deck to collapse onto the ship and into the river below. Twelve people were killed, including seven crew on board the ship, and the five occupants of four cars which fell 45 m (150 feet) after driving off the bridge. Hobart was cut off from its eastern suburbs, and the loss of the road connection had a major social impact. The ship’s master was officially penalised for inattention and failure to handle his vessel in a seamanlike manner."

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[RaccoonWithRabies]

Imagine driving past someone who tries waving you down, probably annoyed that someone was attempting to block your path, only to fall off a bridge and your last thoughts being "Oh... that's what they meant".

[sambarker]

I find the idea of the motorists not stopping kinda terrifying. The Sunshine Skyway bridge collapse is the one I know the most about (another cargo ship hitting a bridge). In that one there was a motorist who stopped, started reversing slowly back along the bridge waving to get people to stop, but three cars and a bus full of people still sped past him and fell off the bridge. The only survivor from the collapsed section was a former navy diver who ricocheted off of the ship itself

[knurlgnar]

People generally cannot comprehend just how massive these bulk transport ships are - no bridge can withstand such an impact. I was wondering how they managed to clear the sunken hull (it would take years of work by specialized underwater welders) and I guess you answered that question: They didn't. They just left it down there. Makes sense I suppose.

[milliondollarmistake]

Imagine being the guy who swerved out of the way to continue off the bridge. Remember all the times you've done something really stupid and the regret and guilt you felt afterward? It was probably nothing compared to the thoughts running through that guy's head.

[tmajcan]

Qxir is one of the best story tellers on YouTube. I can only imagine the terror many of those people felt. Keep up the great work Qxir. Cheers from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania!

[jackeldridge]

Hobartian here, this was a huge event. Completely cleaved the city in half. Before this, the Eastern Suburbs of Rosny and Clarence were just towns, not too dissimilar to Sorell just a few kms southeast. Soon after, they became their modern urban sprawl as they couldn't rely on Hobart

My Mum was being driven along the bridge with my uncle by my grandparents when they were kids a minute or two before the collapse. They crossed over the bridge on their way home from my great gradnan's place and the lights went out behind them. They thought it was a blackout (very common in those days) but when they got home my grandnan called my grandparents and said "Oh thank god your safe, turn on the news" and they heard that the bridge collapsed. Mum still remembers the lights going out today, haunting af

Oh yeah, and Frank Manley (the Monaro driver) has a great sense of humour about the event. Once they pulled his car back in, he got back in and began smoking his pipe again (the pic you see there) and his retelling of the story is quite entertaining. Search his name if you want to see him tell the story today

[Kore_YT]

Hobart is my home town and hearing these stories when I was growing up scared the heck out of me, I even had my most scary nightmare about this bridge where I didn't wake up right after plummeting to my death and that has always stayed with me

[streddaz]

Tasmania is my home state! The guy who owned the Holden Monaro still has it. I’ve seen it in person. It still has the scratches on the underbelly of the transmission from where it came to a halt with the front wheels hanging over the edge.

[LCaddyStudios]

The craziest part is that the Monaro which was left on the edge proceeded to be retrieved and used as a daily driver until the owner donated it to a museum.
Holden’s are definitely a special car

[quadrupleheart]

Makes me think about how often people (including myself) take for granted that the roads are okay, the bridge is there, and that everything is normal. I wonder how many distracted drivers would go careening over the edge if this happened now?

[TrialzGTAS]

Having a bridge collapse underneath me whilst driving was one of my biggest fears. There’s been a handful I’ve seen on the news growing which fueled it. Particularly on the east coast US where I’m at

[whybother]

Taswegian here. This story is a pretty sobering one in our history - we are a very close knit community and it really did affect the entire state. I showed this video to my father and he says he remembers it quite well.

He was only five or six at the time but can remember it vividly to this day. His mother saw it on television and there was a frantic scramble to find out if his father was safe. He drove into the driveway soon after and had no idea until he saw what had happened on the news. He'd only crossed the bridge about five minutes before the accident.

You have to wonder how people still managed to drive off the edge of the collapsed section. Where the section of roadway had collapsed there was a crest which hid the missing section from view until motorists were right on top of it. That combined with the fog and darkness from the lack of lighting made for a deadly concoction.

The Tasman Bridge was pretty much the only connection to the eastern suburbs besides the Bridgewater Lift Bridge. It severed the connection between Rosny, Risdon, Lindisfarne, Bellarive and the airport. When the disaster occurred there was a lot of speculation that the towns on the eastern bank at the time would simply wither away. The disaster is pretty much the reason the towns grew and eventually amalgamated to become the eastern suburbs of Hobart. The lack of a road connection directly to Hobart meant they had to adapt as they couldn't rely on the economy of the city to sustain themselves eventually resulting in them become self-sufficient.

[whyyes]

Frank Manley's green Holden Monaro survived this incident and is still around today. This is a legendary car for Australia that this bridge didn't claim.

[moohooman]

Its terrifying to see that, because most of these bridges in Australia usually have speeds of 70-80KM/h, and I feel like if I was racing along at that speed and the bridge was out, I wouldn't know until it was too late. Its just one of those things you would never think would happen.

[RiffRaffMama.]

The couple in the Monaro still have the car. They decided after it saved their lives that they just couldn't part with it. It's been restored and is worth an absolute fortune.

[Mobscene_CDN]

Damn, looks like the ship wasn't even close to going through the correct place. Had to be at least a couple hundred meters from the passage though.

[lonewolf]

It’s nice to think that the people and businesses who had a boat at their disposal stepped up to help try and save anyone who had fallen into the water

[GregSr]

I own a small boat. This disaster reminds me of rule #1: Never approach a dock at a speed greater than you're willing to hit the dock.

[Seth-muwo]

I don't even know I want to hear these stories, but I'm addicted to listening to your story telling technique. You pick topics I've never heard of, and make them interesting.

[hrunchtayt]

Something like this happened here in the US. In Tampa on May 9th 1980, MV Summit Venture slammed into the Skyway bridge and seven cars and a greyhound bus drove off the collapsed section and fell 150 feet into the water. That night over 34 people died, many from the bus.