…. as officials recover two bodies
The bodies of two construction workers who were on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed, have been recovered by officials.
The bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning after a 984-foot-long cargo ship collided into a pillar, and six persons from Mexico Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, were presumed dead.
According to the superintendent of Maryland State Police, Col. Roland L. Butler Jr, the two bodies recovered have been identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes from Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera from Guatemala.
Butler said the two workers were filling potholes on the bridge and were later found trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water, adding that the FBI is handling notifying the victims’ families.
He said Authorities were pausing search efforts for the four other workers presumed dead, because additional vehicles were encased in concrete and other debris, making it unsafe for divers, adding that divers will search for more remains, once salvage operations cleared the debris.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday, described the collapse as a global crisis, as according to her, the national economy and the world’s economy depended on the Port of Baltimore.
Moore said the port handled more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in the country
During a Wednesday news conference on Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board Chair, Jennifer Homendy called the site of the Key Bridge collapse devastating, adding that the agency was leading the investigation into the fatal incident.
Homendy said there were 21 crew members and two pilots on board the Dali cargo ship when it 6 into the bridge, and that a senior NTSB hazmat investigator identified 56 containers of hazardous material, and that container share are in the water.
She said the agency received six hours of voyage data from the ship and the investigation could take 12 to 24 months to complete, emphasizing that NTSB will not analyze information collected or provide conclusions while on scene of the collapse.
Moore further stated that the voyage data recorder on the cargo ship Dali was a “newer model” but is considered basic when compared to that on an airplane.
She pointed out that there are 17,468 fracture critical bridges in the United States out of 615,000 bridges total, citing the Federal Highway Administration.
The Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said rebuilding the bridge will not be “quick or easy” but that it will get done, adding that there are four main focus points ahead: reopening the port, dealing with supply chain issues until its reopening, rebuilding the bridge and dealing with traffic issues until the bridge is rebuilt.
NIM