Saying the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was entirely preventable, the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday detailed breakdowns both on board the Dali container ship that crashed into it and a lack of a warning system that could have alerted the construction workers to drive to safety rather than plunge to their deaths on March 26, 2024.
“This tragedy should never have occurred. Lives should never have been lost,” Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chairperson, said before she and board members heard from staff who investigated the calamity that led to six workers’ deaths. “As with all accidents that we investigate, this was preventable.”
NTSB staff said they discovered a loose signal wire that created “a precarious electrical connection” and led to the first of two power outages aboard the Dali as it was exiting the Port of Baltimore heading toward the Key Bridge. That left the crew unable to steer the nearly 1,000-foot cargo ship away from the pier support that it ultimately struck.
They said that the ship was not equipped with infrared thermal imaging technology, which was widely used in the industry and could have identified such faults in the system.
Additionally, the NTSB faulted the state for not having a warning system that could have signaled the approach of “errant vessels” to crews such as the one fixing potholes on the bridge at the time.
NTSB staff showed diagrams showing the workers in their cars on spans 18 and 20 on the bridge, and within driving distance of the safety of spans 16 if only they had been warned.
While police were notified and were able to close the bridge to traffic in time, and a state-contracted inspector, who was on span 22 and able to run to safety on span 23, the crew was not alerted. Seven men in their cars fell along with the bridge into the Patapsco River, and one was rescued but the other six perished.
NTSB staff said if the crew had been notified, they had 1 minute and 29 seconds to evacuate and could have driven south to span 16.