By EFE
Mar 27, 2024, 9:13 PM EDT
The US Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, stated this Wednesday in a press conference that the rapid response of the Baltimore police was key to preventing “dozens” of deaths from the collapse of the bridge after being hit by a freighter, which It ended with the death of six Latin American workers.
“When most Americans saw those images, first responders had already been working for hours to save lives. Without a doubt, that quick work made a huge difference,” he stated in a press conference, in which he was accompanied by Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, deputy commander of operations of the United States Coast Guard.
If it were not for this, for “the efforts of the first responders, the emergency call, the closure (of the bridge) that was already underway and the time of day of this impact, the loss of life could have been dozens,” he claimed.
The events occurred early Tuesday morning, when the Singapore-flagged ship Dali suffered a power outage after leaving the port of Baltimore and 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.
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