Explainer: What is the death toll and why did the Baltimore Bridge collapse?

Two of the six workers who went missing were found dead by divers over a day after a cargo ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. Two men’s remains were discovered in a red pickup vehicle that was immersed in the freezing Patapsco River. On Tuesday, rescuers extracted two workers alive from the water; one was taken to the hospital.

How many people have died so far?

Presumably, six workers on the bridge have died.

Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, originally from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of neighbouring Dundalk, originally from Guatemala, were the two men whose deaths were found on Wednesday.
According to a news conference, the labourers were from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
Because of the dangerous circumstances, authorities have halted attempts to collect corpses in the seas around the twisted wreckage, which is 50 feet (15 metres) deep.
When the accident happened, eight individuals plunged 185 feet (56 metres) into the river, which had water that was 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius), as a construction team was patching potholes on the bridge. One worker was uninjured and the other was hurt, but both were saved.
After the ship issued a Mayday call, authorities prevented cars from accessing the bridge, saving lives.
In order to slow down and allow some time to clear the bridge, the ship also lowered its anchors.

WHAT DATE WAS THE BALTIMORE BRIDGE BRAKED?

On Tuesday, just after 1 am EDT (0500 GMT), the container ship Dali was travelling to Sri Lanka by way of the Patapsco River. It had a complete power outage at 1:24 am, causing all of its lights to go out.
At 1:27 am, three minutes later, the cargo ship collided with a bridge pylon, causing almost the whole structure to collapse into the sea.
A first responder on emergency radio answered the crew’s Mayday call and sent cops to stop traffic onto the bridge less than a minute before the collision.
Even in the early morning, when there isn’t as much traffic, the calamity may have been much worse if they hadn’t worked so quickly.
The incident on Tuesday could be the deadliest bridge collapse in US history since the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed due to a design flaw in 2007, killing thirteen people.

WHAT CAUSED THE BRIDGE TO FALL?

Federal government categorization of bridges, like the one in Baltimore, as “fracture critical” means that if one part of the bridge fails, the whole structure will collapse. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that there are about 16,800 of these bridges in the United States.
The bridge was more susceptible to a catastrophic collapse, according to the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, since it lacked the structural engineering redundancies typical of modern bridges.
Three years before the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, Florida, suffered a similar vessel catastrophe that claimed 35 lives and forced bridge designers to add stronger foundation pier safeguards, the Key Bridge opened for business in 1977.

How much will the bridge cost, and who will pay for the damage?

Rebuilding the bridge should be funded by the federal government, according to President Joe Biden, who also pledged to visit Baltimore shortly. On Thursday, the Department of Transportation granted $60 million in emergency assistance money with a “quick release” to facilitate the removal of debris and kickstart the reconstruction process. Congress would have to authorise financing in order to rebuild the bridge. Following the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse, Congress provided $250 million.
The economic research firm IMPLAN estimated that the cost of repairing the bridge would be $600 million at first.
Rebuilding the bridge might end up costing at least $2 billion, federal officials told Maryland legislators, according to a Roll Call story citing a person involved with the talks. Analysts predicted that insurers would be hit with claims worth billions of dollars; one estimate estimated the damage at much more than $4 billion, making the accident a record loss for shipping insurance.

WHAT IS THE TIMELINE FOR REBUILDING THE BRIDGE?

Depending on how much of the existing structure can be saved, rebuilding can take a while. The first bridge took five years to build, from 1972 to 1977.
According to IMPLAN, Maryland would lose $28 million in revenue if the port were closed for only one month.

A SHIP ALMOST ABOARD THE BALTIMORE BRIDGE?

The Dali, carrying two pilots and twenty-one crew members, was sailing from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The ship is as long as three football fields at 948 feet (289 metres). Though it could hold twice as much goods, it was piled high with containers. The ship’s black box, which provides information on the location, speed, direction, radar, audio and radio conversations from the bridge, and alarms, was found by safety inspectors.
In 2016, while attempting to leave the North Sea container terminal in the Belgian city of Antwerp, the ship ran afoul of a quay.
Equasis, a public website that offers ship information, states that the vessel had “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” issues discovered during a subsequent inspection conducted in June 2023 at San Antonio, Chile.
According to LSEG records, Grace Ocean Pte Ltd. is the ship’s registered owner. It is flying the Singaporean flag. Maersk chartered the ship, which was handled by Synergy Marine Group.

ABOUT THE COLLAPSING BRIDGE, WHAT DO WE KNOW?

Three bridges span Baltimore Harbour, and the Francis Scott Key Bridge carried 31,000 vehicles a day, or 11.3 million vehicles annually.
The steel bridge stood 185 feet (56 metres) above the river and had four lanes on each side.
It spans the Patapsco River, where Francis Scott Key, the creator of the American national anthem, composed the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814 after his observation of the British losing the Battle of Baltimore and bombarding Fort McHenry. The bridge was opened in 1977.

WHAT EFFECT WILL THE BALTIMORE PORT SUFFER FROM THE BRIDGE COLLAPSE?

The port, which is the 17th biggest in the nation, ceased traffic. It is probably possible to reroute the flow of containers to larger ports instead of Baltimore. But there may be significant hiccups with coal, sugar, and freight vehicles.
According to figures from the Maryland Port Administration, it will handle at least 750,000 cars in 2023, making it the busiest port in the United States for auto exports.
The port had the second-highest volume of coal shipments in 2023.
In terms of volume, it is also the biggest port in the United States for handling construction and farm equipment, as well as agricultural goods like salt and sugar.