BALTIMORE — Radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive indicates officers were just about to alert a construction crew when a major bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being hit by a container ship that had lost power.
The Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic includes a dispatcher putting out a call saying a ship had lost its steering ability and asking officers to stop all traffic. It took officers less than two minutes to stop traffic on the bridge.
One officer who had stopped traffic radioed that he was going to drive onto the bridge to notify the construction crew once a second officer arrived. But seconds later, a frantic officer radioed that the bridge had collapsed.
The six people still unaccounted for were part of the construction crew, which was filling potholes on the bridge.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER SAYS AMERICANS SHOULD EXPECT SHORTAGES
The head of a supply chain management company says Americans should expect shortages of goods as the Baltimore bridge collapse affects ocean container shipping and East Coast trucking logistics.
“It’s not just the port of Baltimore that’s going to be impacted,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport.
Petersen says attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea connecting Asia with Europe and the United States have forced traffic away from the Suez Canal and around the tip of Africa. At the same time, there’s been increased congestion in the Panama Canal. Petersen says U.S. importers are increasingly shifting to West Coast ports which in turn may have their own back-ups.
“You get this vicious feedback loop,” he said.
Petersen was working with his team Tuesday to reroute about 800 shipping containers currently making their way to Baltimore’s port.
“It’s a scramble because each of those containers has now a new journey to clear customs, you’ve got to get a different truck to pick it up at a different port, it creates a whole lot of downstream work,” he said.
A cargo ship lost power and rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, destroying the span in a matter of seconds and plunging it into the river.