By The newspaper
Mar 27, 2024, 16:20 PM EDT
Some audios published this Wednesday by the Baltimore police reveal the moments before the merchant ship Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a tragedy that has shaken the United States in recent days and left at least six Latin Americans dead. deceased who were working on repair work.
“I need one of you on the south side, one of you on the north side. Stop all traffic on the bridge (…) A ship is approaching that has just lost its way,” says a police officer at the beginning of the audio, marked 90 seconds before announcing the total fall of the bridge, the EFE agency reported.
Two officers respond that they are doing so while another asks, “Is there a team working on the bridge right now?”
In the edited audio, which lasts a minute and a half, another person responds that there is a team working and the agent in charge asks him to find the person in charge to “temporarily remove them from the bridge.” The agents assure that they have closed the bridge to traffic, just 60 seconds after the first communication.
About 30 seconds later, according to EFE, one of the police officers is heard stating: “The entire bridge just fell!”
“Do we know if all traffic is stopped?” the higher command asks, and the policeman responds with a nervous voice: “I can’t get to the other side, sir, the bridge is down.”
A tragedy that shakes the United States.
The audio is one of the many details that have emerged since the accident, which occurred early Tuesday morning.
One of the first reports to emerge is that Baltimore crashed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in a matter of seconds.
Eight employees of the construction company Brawner Builders, who were filling potholes on the bridge, fell into the dark waters of the Patapsco River, of which only two could be rescued.
After an intense search against the clock that lasted almost all day, the authorities declared the six missing people dead and announced that they would reactivate the search for the bodies on Wednesday.
Before the collision, the container ship’s crew issued an emergency warning, allowing authorities to cut off vehicle traffic on the bridge and prevent a major tragedy.
Two Mexicans, one Salvadoran, one Honduran and two Guatemalans are the nationalities of the deceased.
The authorities have confirmed their nationalities, although only the names of two of them are known: the Salvadoran Miguel Luna and the Honduran Maynor Suazo.
With information from EFE.
Keep reading:
- Divers continue the search for six Hispanics who died in the collapse of the Baltimore bridge
- Shock in Baltimore after the bridge collapse: “It sounded like a bomb”
- Investigation in Chile revealed months ago problems in ship that collided with bridge in Baltimore