The deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was “preventable,” officials said Tuesday while presenting their findings from the investigation into the maritime crash that took down the bridge.
Six construction workers died when the container ship Dali lost power in the Patapsco River and smashed into a pier that supported the bridge in March 2024.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday the series of events leading to the collision should not have occurred.
“The fact is, none of us should be here today. This tragedy should have never occurred,” she said at a hearing in Washington D.C. “Lives should have never been lost. As with all accidents we investigate, this was preventable.”
According to Homendy, a misplaced sticker labeling one of the thousands of wires on the ship failed to establish a consistent connection, which caused other technical failures that sent the 984-foot ship crashing into the base of the 47-year-old bridge over the outer Baltimore Harbor.
“Contributing to the collapse of the Key Bridge and the loss of life was the lack of countermeasures to reduce the bridge’s vulnerability to collapse due to impact by ocean-going vessels, which could have been implemented if a vulnerability assessment had been conducted by the Maryland Transportation Authority as recommended by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials,” Homendy added.
Investigators also said the construction workers on the bridge didn’t receive proper notification that their lives were in danger. One of those laborers survived, but with serious injuries.
One person on the Singapore-bound ship, which investigators said sustained damages exceeding $18 million, was injured.
The Dali’s crew managed to maintain control of their vessel after one blackout earlier on the day of the crash. A second outage a short time later caused further complications. The crew lost control of the ship’s propulsion and steering capacity before it collided with the bridge, which collapsed 13 seconds later.
