Well That's His N C B Up The Pictures!

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/baltimore-bridge-latest-workers-possibly-in-the-water-as-video-shows-moment-of-collapse-13101977

 

[naomi24]

//bridges are not designed to be hit by a ship, unquote. I never knew that, did you?//

 

I would guess they're not - but I wouldn't have expected the whole bridge to collapse like that.

[Redhelen72]

What a tragedy

It appears that the bridge had a 'fault' as there was no central pillar putting the whole bridge at risk.

The shipping company said there was no crew on board - does that mean it was adrift?

[ladybirder]

Two people were rescued. One walked away!!!!!!

Other in critical position in hospital.

Multiple agencies are helping.

From Sky News.

[nicebloke1]

Listening to it at the moment the expert? says that when navigating through this bridge it has to be done manually. I would be suprised if the find anyone alive in the water most of them where in cars and it happened very quickly.

[sandyRoe]

The designer of the bridge must have had gossamer on his mind when he put pen to paper.  It looked very fragile and as it turned out, proved to be.

[nicebloke1]

Talk tv reports 20 missing?

[ToraToraTora]

barsel: "but I'm from Manchester TTT and we don't have sayings like that here." - Perlease you must have led a sheltered life then, there is a bucket load of mancunian slang.

[mushroom25]

// The shipping company said there was no crew on board  //

the ship belongs to Synergy, and is on-charter to Maersk. the ship is crewed entirely by the owners. Maersk reported that none of their staff were present.

[nicebloke1]

sandyRoe,The bridge has stood since 1977. So i dont think you can say its fragile.

[retrocop]

Where was the pilot?

It reports that a commercial vessel this size must be manually navigated to negotiate passing under the bridge. i.e. someone at the helm.

[Hymie]

According to an early news report I saw, apparently there were two pilots onboard - I would not want to be either of them right now.

[ToraToraTora]

10:34, TBF not many bridges would survive a collision with a 32000 ton cargo ship.

[Hymie]

The bridge support pillars will have been provided with barrier/guards to prevent vessels colliding with them, but with the size of these container ships their bow will hit the bridge before the part of the ship in the water hits the barrier/guard.

It is nigh on impossible to build a bridge that will remain upright with anyone of its supporting pillars removed.

[Ken4155]

Still 7 people unaccounted for, apparently.

[JJ109]

I had never heard of "Up the pictures" either and I come from the Midlands and Yorkshire. "Down the Swanee"- yes, but not "up the pictures"!

[Peter Pedant]

TTT What is NCB and what does up the pictures mean? I can understand Peter Pendants posts more than yours.

Peter Pendant - that awful fellow who always hangs around, whingeing, here

NCB - no claims bonus.

TTT loves decorating his serious posts with stupidities

AND I wondered about insurance and who paid the moolah. It is a mile  long, and the insured parties would be bridge operators, cargo ship and pilot. I thought it would be a billion claim and the lawyers would love the quarrelling (and fees).

Here is an English case

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/law-report-subcontractor-is-judged-liable-for-fire-damage-to-uppark-house-national-trust-v-haden-young-ltd-court-of-appeal-lord-justice-nourse-lord-justice-russell-and-lord-justice-henry-26-july-1994-1379674.html

they all pointed at each other and said 'not me, him' and the Judge said o come on you are all joking arent you?

 

[Peter Pedant]

It is nigh on impossible to build a bridge that will remain upright with anyone of its supporting pillars removed.

I think the secret is in the word 'supporting' - hey we cd say the bridge suffered from the Delilah effect.

yeah yeah I agree if you knock off a leg from a table if it is perfectly balanced it will stand

[Peter Pedant]

//bridges are not designed to be hit by a ship, unquote. I never knew that, did you?//

British Rail are very interested in 'bridge-strikes' - when cars/lorries drive into one. I always thought the uprights were load bearing so if you took one away, er it fell down. But that's me. engineering statics, never got the hang of it

[Peter Pedant]

Uppark ( National Trust v Haden) was initially unreported

this is more interesting to us Britons

https://vlex.co.uk/vid/rowlands-mark-ltd-v-792840321

can a landlord recover damages for fire damage against a tenant who has negligently caused it?

( for slow ABers, subsitute bridge operator for landlord, bridge for fire, tenant for ship operator) - oh and ignore the contract

[theshedman]

Hymie, nearly all big ships these days have a bulbous bow which will strike something at the same time or maybe just before the bow.