Board 8 > Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore just collapsed.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Erecting huge shitty Mount Rushmores to classic metal albums in front of the bridge supports would have been one way to prevent this accident, I suppose

That post was so such an astounding tonal shift I barked laughing.

Zen knew what the topic needed

Only on b8

Boomer moment

*dab*

I have deleted my ugly Rushmores and I dont know how this happened as I dont remember ever clicking on this topic

apologies to our Baltimore B8ers

mount rushmore would def stop a runaway freight train coming its way so it should handle a boat

foolm0r0n posted...

They follow and signal boost those kinds of people so they're just virtue signalling right now. But yes at this moment they are right.

I mean this very topic begins with casting/implying blame on the captain of the ship immediately after the incident occurred when we had zero information of what happened or why. And it came out soon after that it almost certainly was not the fault of the captain of the ship's fault and in fact they even sent out a mayday that a collision was possible. Like maybe it's not as openly egregious as "oh it was DEI/Biden/the border!!!" but...

CoolCly posted...

So what's the death toll looking like?

It sounds like just some workers on the bridge and a few vehicles are all it ended up being? Like maybe single digits or a couple dozen?

That's obviously really horrifying for those people, but when I saw the bridge collapsing I thought it was a packed bridge full of cars - that would be truly nightmarish.

News reports are that there were 8 people involved/on the bridge at the time of the collapse - all construction crew (the road had been closed for traffic while they were doing roadwork) - of which 2 have been rescued (1 in critical condition) and the other 6 unaccounted for.

It's not impossible there were other people on the bridge that the state did not know about but it seems like between the time this occurred, the closure of the bridge for construction, and the ship's mayday we averted a worst case scenario. Still absolutely tragic for those who were there (and unfortunately I fear the 6 unaccounted for, if they haven't been found yet, are unlikely to have good outcomes) and for the city at large - but this absolutely could have been a triple-digit casualty event or worse if this had been rush hour or something.

...blaming the captain still makes sense considering he's the one in charge of the ship and there are decisions that only he could have made. now, it's possible he's innocent and got caught in a bad spot or unwinnable situation. it's also possible he knew the ship should not have been sailing but did so anyway. alternatively, and going up the chain here, it's also possible the company in charge of the ship knew of certain defects or issues.

in terms of timeline, we now know the ship left at 1:24 AM, with flickering lights to start. it turned a minute later towards the bridge, a minute after that sends the mayday call, and a minute after that it crashes, unclear if it's 1:27 AM or 1:28 AM. meaning that between departure and crashing into the pillar, 3-4 minutes have passed and they had visible problems right from the start.

not unreasonable to say the captain fucked up here. maybe other members of the crew like a safety officer too, sure, but just because you went "mayday mayday!" doesn't mean that you aren't at least partially responsible for an accident that happened within 4 minutes, let alone one from the call. there's absolutely nothing egregious or bizarre about that. it's a freak accident, sure. but answers to how it could've been avoided are going to start at asking questions about the ship, its condition, what people knew, and what people did/did not do.

I mean, my own personal priors would lean me towards "freak accident" or "institutional problem resulting from the company relaxing safety standards to meet their goals to maximize profit so these boats were being made to go even when they really shouldn't have like we've seen in basically every industry where this happens (i.e. train derailments)" but just because that's where I lean doesn't mean I would assert that that was the case immediately following the collapse when we have no information.

There's not really any issue in just waiting until the facts come out here. Especially when we're talking in the first few hours or days.

considering the boat's been in accidents before, totally reasonable to think it's a case that the company safety standards need work. and that's another big red flag, even if the accident was like 8 years ago it's a case where like... just how many accidents happen and how many from this company? could be a case of we weren't aware of it the same way we weren't aware of train derailments, could be more.

for what it's worth, did say it was the one driving the ship but i was assuming captain and pilot are the same. if they're different, pilot legit might be innocent. captain though uhhh.... not buying that outright. especially with the knowledge that there were power issues right from the start, which was known immediately to the public. like there's no way that's clean.

The fact is even if you had never posted any of speculation about this, the truth would get out just as quickly and accurately as if you had. Because you're not actually asking any questions, and no is actually answering you. It's just screaming into the void. Something to keep your fingers occupied. Less than a butterfly flapping its wings.

Maritime pilots and ship captain are different positions - at least to my very limited understanding since I didn't really have cause to look into the matter before today.

The US requires foreign ships to have pilots to navigate US harbors. Baltimore in particular, AFAIK, uses local pilots who are very familiar with the conditions and tides in the area to help the captain and crew navigate in and out of the harbor. The Dali had two pilots on board - the senior/one-in-charge having ordered the crew to drop anchor and try to turn hard to the left as best they could to reduce speed in an attempt to stop the ship, or at least slow it, prior to the collision. Ultimately it didn't work, as we saw

Thorn posted...

Maritime pilots and ship captain are different positions - at least to my very limited understanding since I didn't really have cause to look into the matter before today.

we're in the same boat for that one, pun not intended.

slowing a boat of that size is honestly something that's going to take time once it gets going, it can't just stop within a minute, especially if there are any currents worth a damn. we'll have a better idea as to the ship's condition at the start because that's where we'll probably find answers as again, crashing within 4 minutes suggests something went extremely wrong to begin with and is something the captain should've known or worse, did know but ignored.

all this said my main objection is trying to bring politics topic bs here or acting like DEI/Biden/the border nonsense is remotely comparable to the assertion that people on the boat fucked up. you know better than that.

Wanglicious posted...

you know better than that.

Sorry dad. But it is comparable. It's the same activity and it's dangerous if you don't realize that.

Right I keep forgetting