Baltimore Bridge.

The ship’s lights went out as it approached the bridge then flickered back on before going out again, loss of power presumably affected its course. Thank goodness it wasn’t in rush hour when the bridge would have been packed. Not many casualties reported so far.

On the BBC feed it appears the problem is that the ship was or should have been in the process of turning around after leaving the port before it got to the bridge. Looking at the size of the ship and the size of the bridge it doesn't seem surprising.

Shocking, absolutely shocking!

Witzend Let us know what your DH says about the engineering aspect.

The weight hitting the bridge support would have been many, many tons. One of my first thoughts was whether the bridge could have been designed to withstand such an impact. It will be interesting to hear your husband’s thoughts Witzend.

It's horrific. What a terrible tragedy for all those involved. I have to admit that I've never liked driving over high bridges at all.

Awful tragedy that could have been avoided. Those poor people who were on the bridge at the time didn't stand a chance.

How could that happen?!
The ship seemed way off its course.

There must surely have been something seriously amiss with the design, for the whole thing to collapse like that? Once he’s home I will consult dh - retired civil engineer.

Awful to read this and am thinking of possible fatalities, I hope there aren't any but that's too much to hope for. About ten or so years ago we took an Amtrak train from New York to Savannah down that Eastern Seaboard of the US, passing right by Baltimore, the parts we saw from the train looked pretty run down and impoverished there's a lot of poverty in America. Thoughts are with the casualties.

Absolutely awful. There will be a lot of questions about how a bridge could collapse like this after a container ship went into it and why it hit the bridge in the first place. Those poor people.

How awful, those poor people. It’s really made me wonder how safely other bridges are designed, I’d always assumed each section had structural integrity but if this bridge was typical, that isn’t the case.

Dreadful, and so sudden. The video on BBC showed how quickly it happened. Those poor people and their families.

It is just awful.
My thoughts are with all involved.

OMG, just saw the video on the BBC website. Horrendous!

Almost unbelievable how the bridge just went down .. locals thought it was an earthquake at first but now realise it was a heavily laden container ship…

I imagine that, given the conditions, there will, sadly, be a number of fatalities. There will also be arrests, criminal and civil proceedings.

A shocking event indeed , hopefully people will be rescued successfully by emergency services and divers who are on scene.

Unbelievable how much damage was caused so quickly. The poor people, and rescuers, in the water at a temperature under 10C and with a diesel spill.