Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Earlier Warning Could Have Saved Workers, NTSB Says

Source: AFP

More than eighteen months after the catastrophic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge—struck by the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali—the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has delivered sobering conclusions: the six workers killed in the incident might have survived had they been warned sooner.

In its findings released Tuesday, the NTSB determined that Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) police officers at each end of the bridge received orders to stop traffic 1 minute and 29 secondsbefore the collapse. If workers had been alerted at roughly the same time, they may have had enough time to drive to a section that remained intact.

The investigation confirms that the probable cause of the disaster was a loss of electrical power due to an improperly secured connection resulting from incorrectly labeled wiring. This failure led to the loss of propulsion and steering as the vessel approached the bridge.

The report also highlights two major systemic failures:

• the absence of a structural vulnerability assessment for the bridge;

• a lack of immediate, effective communication to evacuate the workers in time.

All six victims, Latino immigrant workers performing maintenance on the bridge deck, were killed when the structure collapsed like a “house of cards.”

Beyond Baltimore, the NTSB identified 13 U.S. bridges that exceed the reference threshold for collapse risk in the event of a ship strike—among them the monumental Chesapeake Bay Bridge, two bridges in Philadelphia, and four structures in New Orleans. Dozens more assessments remain underway.

On the eve of the report’s release, Maryland authorities revealed that the reconstruction budget for the Francis Scott Key Bridge has more than doubled, now estimated between $4.3 and $5.2 billion, and the reopening date pushed back to 2030, two years later than originally planned.