Update (04/01): temporary channel to open next to collapsed Key Bridge for commercial boats

[Uaarkson]

1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said:

This is The Greek's fault.

STRING!!!! WHERE THE FUCK IS WALLACE!!???

[DarkStar189]

I just saw a video on twitter(that someone reposted from a TikTok video) of someone claiming to see dynamite charges blowing up on the bridge… You wouldn’t think I’d be surprised, but somehow that outlandish claim caught me off guard.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This is scanner audio of the MTA radio comms to close the bridge.  It appears that they had about 78 seconds from the time of the "mayday" call from the ship until impact.

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

24 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

I just saw a video on twitter(that someone reposted from a TikTok video) of someone claiming to see dynamite charges blowing up on the bridge… You wouldn’t think I’d be surprised, but somehow that outlandish claim caught me off guard.

 

"Hey we should blow up a bridge."

"Awesome, what's the best way?"

"Dynamite"

"Nice, but that would be discovered too easily. We'll need cover."

"I agree. We'll plow a giant ship into the bridge at the same time the dynamite blows."

 

And real people believe this. They also likely believe that it was done to cover for/promote minorities being hired in companies.

[TUFKAK]

33 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

"Hey we should blow up a bridge."

"Awesome, what's the best way?"

"Dynamite"

"Nice, but that would be discovered too easily. We'll need cover."

"I agree. We'll plow a giant ship into the bridge at the same time the dynamite blows."

 

And real people believe this. They also likely believe that it was done to cover for/promote minorities being hired in companies.

Lizard people I’m telling you guys 

[Firewithin]

not that i should be surprised in the hellscape that is twitter but the racism and general right wing bullshit about this is insane.

[CitizenVectron]

Sounds like the crew did everything they could in the circumstances, and the city as well:

• Notified authorities within minutes of power trouble
• Port/city got in touch with the construction crew on either end of the bridge, they managed to stop traffic before the ship hit (unfortunately one crew was in the middle of the bridge and did not escape in time)
• Crew dropped anchors in desperate attempt to slow

The real root causes here are:

• Infrastructure not meeting modern safety requirements
• Ships being allowed under their own power rather than by multiple tugs

[Firewithin]

@Commissar SFLUFAN

 

‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Rips Into Baltimore Bridge Conspiracists, Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene A “Complete Submoronic Pratfall Of A Human Being’

DEADLINE.COM

---

The Wire producer and longtime Baltimore chronicler David Simon ripped into conspiracists spreading unfounded theories that today’s tragic and deadly collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge could be a terrorist attack. Simon, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun before creating Homicide: Life On The Street, reserved a special ire for Marjorie Taylor Greene, […]

 

[ort]

18 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

Sounds like the crew did everything they could in the circumstances, and the city as well:

• Notified authorities within minutes of power trouble
• Port/city got in touch with the construction crew on either end of the bridge, they managed to stop traffic before the ship hit (unfortunately one crew was in the middle of the bridge and did not escape in time)
• Crew dropped anchors in desperate attempt to slow

The real root causes here are:

• Infrastructure not meeting modern safety requirements
• Ships being allowed under their own power rather than by multiple tugs

 

I saw an interesting take from a guy who works on ships like these. This is some sort of modern super ship that's designed to be as big as possible while still fitting through the Panama Canal. There aren't actually many of these ships in service. Margins are so tight in the international shipping industry that most of them are run by overworked skeleton crews and are poorly maintained. Stopping to properly service things costs time and money so they do the bare minimum.

 

It possible the crew didn't do anything egregiously wrong, but were victims of circumstance, tight budget and poor training.

[mclumber1]

1 minute ago, ort said:

 

I saw an interesting take from a guy who works on ships like these. This is some sort of modern super ship that's designed to be as big as possible while still fitting through the Panama Canal. There aren't actually many of these ships in service. Margins are so tight in the international shipping industry that most of them are run by overworked skeleton crews and are poorly maintained. Stopping to properly service things costs time and money so they do the bare minimum.

 

It possible the crew didn't do anything egregiously wrong, but were victims of circumstance, tight budget and poor training.

 

If a lack of maintenance is the cause for this incident, then I would hope the state and federal government sue the shit out of the company who operates this vessel to cover the cost of replacing the bridge as well as payouts to all of the families who lost their loved ones.  

[ort]

I think the boat is owned by a company in Hong Kong but operated and maintained by a different company based out of Singapore which is a shell company (actually it's multiple shell companies, like a shell company inception) that's been setup specifically to shield the parent companies involved from things just like this.

 

I'm no expert on international law, but I think it's going to be complicated.

[mclumber1]

15 minutes ago, ort said:

I think the boat is owned by a company in Hong Kong but operated and maintained by a different company based out of Singapore which is a shell company (actually it's multiple shell companies, like a shell company inception) that's been setup specifically to shield the parent companies involved from things just like this.

 

I'm no expert on international law, but I think it's going to be complicated.

 

You are probably right.  Which is why it's a good thing that the federal government is pledging that they will front the cost of cleaning up the wreckage and rebuilding the bridge.  Clawing the money from these companies could take years. 

[Brian]

38 minutes ago, ort said:

 

I saw an interesting take from a guy who works on ships like these. This is some sort of modern super ship that's designed to be as big as possible while still fitting through the Panama Canal. There aren't actually many of these ships in service. Margins are so tight in the international shipping industry that most of them are run by overworked skeleton crews and are poorly maintained. Stopping to properly service things costs time and money so they do the bare minimum.

 

It possible the crew didn't do anything egregiously wrong, but were victims of circumstance, tight budget and poor training.

So no different than trains. Glad the supply chain is kept together by duct tape 

[Uaarkson]

1 hour ago, Firewithin said:

@Commissar SFLUFAN

 

‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Rips Into Baltimore Bridge Conspiracists, Calls Marjorie Taylor Greene A “Complete Submoronic Pratfall Of A Human Being’

DEADLINE.COM

---

The Wire producer and longtime Baltimore chronicler David Simon ripped into conspiracists spreading unfounded theories that today’s tragic and deadly collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge could be a terrorist attack. Simon, a...

 

FUCKIN BASED

[ort]

The sad thing is that people like MTG would absolutely love to find out this was a terror attack. She was probably glued to the initial news hoping and praying it was not an accident so she could use the tragedy as a political cudgel.

[Keyser_Soze]

17 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

FUCKIN BASED

 

The Winnebago one

 

[TwinIon]

1 hour ago, ort said:

I saw an interesting take from a guy who works on ships like these. This is some sort of modern super ship that's designed to be as big as possible while still fitting through the Panama Canal. There aren't actually many of these ships in service. Margins are so tight in the international shipping industry that most of them are run by overworked skeleton crews and are poorly maintained. Stopping to properly service things costs time and money so they do the bare minimum.

 

It possible the crew didn't do anything egregiously wrong, but were victims of circumstance, tight budget and poor training.

Pretty sure I saw the same thing, and the whole thing about the Jones act and running these massive ships on minuscule margins rang true to me.

 

Far as I can tell, a vessel this size would be considered post-panamax or neo-panamax, which basically just means it's as big as possible for the upgraded panama canal locks. This USDA site (odd source, but seems legit) says that in 2019 there were 585 of them, or 5% of global bulk vessels. 38% of bulk vessels in 2019 were Panamax or larger. So this ship was in the upper middle of the pack when it comes to sheer size.

 

To me it sounds very plausible that the crew was a victim of circumstance.

[BloodyHell]

22 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

Sounds like the crew did everything they could in the circumstances, and the city as well:

• Notified authorities within minutes of power trouble
• Port/city got in touch with the construction crew on either end of the bridge, they managed to stop traffic before the ship hit (unfortunately one crew was in the middle of the bridge and did not escape in time)
• Crew dropped anchors in desperate attempt to slow

The real root causes here are:

• Infrastructure not meeting modern safety requirements
• Ships being allowed under their own power rather than by multiple tugs

I mostly agree with all of that, except unfortunately there will never be enough tugs for all the major shipping traffic in some of these river and canal systems.  These placed feed major ports, and there isn’t much money in running tugs, so the government would need to do it. 
 

I believe it was said the nearby port is America’s 18th largest. Instead they’ll just hope it doesn’t happen again. 
 

What I don’t understand is why redundancies weren’t installed or didn’t kick in if it was an electrical problem.  Even large fishing vessels have redundancies for power less they be helpless at sea. I figured these massive vessels would have at least a single automatic redundant electrical system with generators. 

[GoldenTongue]

On 3/26/2024 at 4:11 PM, CitizenVectron said:

The real root causes here are:

• Infrastructure not meeting modern safety requirements
• Ships being allowed under their own power rather than by multiple tugs

I think this conclusion is a bit flawed.  

 

You could have a bridge which exceeded every modern code requirement by a factor of 150%, and it is still virtually impossible that it would have withstood the force imparted by a load of that size impacting a primary member at the speed of contact.

 

As for ships being allowed under their own power - how many ports utilize tugs for the majority of passage into/out of the port of entry, as opposed to being used to assist in docking operations or for direct transport of non-directly propelled vessels such as barges, oil platforms, log platforms, etc.

 

You're essentially assigning root cause to a failure in policy that doesn't actually exist.  Countless ports relay on bay/harbor pilots to guide larger vessels into/through major port waterways, and do so with a relative minimum of incident.

 

If you want to argue that that policy should change, that all major shipping traffic should be guided via tug throughout most of the entry/exit of a port, that's fine.  But recognize that that represents a significant change from how port traffic is handled throughout much of the world, and would incur a substantial additional cost, to say nothing of the delays that would be encountered until fleets of tugs could be built to adequately service the demand.

 

 

[CayceG]

You really only need these little circles in front of the piers:

 

 

 

I say "only"... they're huge and would need to be lots and lots of mass and would be expensive. 

 

But in the case of the reconstructed bridge, I bet they'll be there, along with beefy rock "islands" that the main bridge columns are built on.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Why can’t we simply build a building to withstand the impact of a fully loaded 747????

[outsida]

6 hours ago, CayceG said:

You really only need these little circles in front of the piers:

 

 

 

I say "only"... they're huge and would need to be lots and lots of mass and would be expensive. 

 

But in the case of the reconstructed bridge, I bet they'll be there, along with beefy rock "islands" that the main bridge columns are built on.

The Bridge had those little circles in front of the piers. 
 

[CayceG]

6 minutes ago, outsida said:

The Bridge had those little circles in front of the piers. 
 

 

But not where it needed to be to prevent the accident. And also, that one doesn't look massive enough to have prevented or mitigated this. 

[Jason]

6 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Why can’t we simply build a building to withstand the impact of a fully loaded 747????

 

bunker fuel can't melt steel cables 

[finaljedi]

6 minutes ago, CayceG said:

 

But not where it needed to be to prevent the accident. And also, that one doesn't look massive enough to have prevented or mitigated this. 

 

Is anything big enough to withstand a ship that massive?

[legend]

1 minute ago, finaljedi said:

 

Is anything big enough to withstand a ship that massive?

 

So many teenage jokes come to mind.

[CayceG]

40 minutes ago, finaljedi said:

 

Is anything big enough to withstand a ship that massive?

 

Yes. The bridge ultimately stopped it, after all. 

[cusideabelincoln]

Chuds have already created the ironic "Build Back Better" meme with depictions of the bridge collapse 

[finaljedi]

1 hour ago, CayceG said:

 

Yes. The bridge ultimately stopped it, after all. 

 

I feel like the bridge may be a bit sturdier than the stuff they put in front of it.  But I gotcha, safety bridges by the bridges.

 

[ort]

Twitter is full of chortling moronic dipshit losers acting like this is some big coverup, posting gifs of Biden steering a boat, etc…

 

How much of a worthless mush brained turd goblin do you have to be to blame everything that happens on the president? Honestly, the worst thing about Trumps era of politics is that it has illuminated just how staggeringly stupid so many of my fellow Americans are and it’s really fucking depressing to share a planet with these worthless fuck faced fuckers. Like, what in the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

 

 

People are really THAT dumb? They’re really this fucking dumb? How is that even possible? How DOES THE WORLD EVEN FUNCTION WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE ARE THAT STUPID?

[Jwheel86]

30 minutes ago, ort said:

Twitter is full of chortling moronic dipshit losers acting like this is some big coverup, posting gifs of Biden steering a boat, etc…

 

How much of a worthless mush brained turd goblin do you have to be to blame everything that happens on the president? Honestly, the worst thing about Trumps era of politics is that it has illuminated just how staggeringly stupid so many of my fellow Americans are and it’s really fucking depressing to share a planet with these worthless fuck faced fuckers. Like, what in the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

 

 

People are really THAT dumb? They’re really this fucking dumb? How is that even possible? How DOES THE WORLD EVEN FUNCTION WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE ARE THAT STUPID?

 

 

Trump and Chud podcasters made it okay to just go with stupid ideas instead of logic. 

[Jwheel86]

Baltimore City Fire comms 

 

 

[Nokra]

51 minutes ago, ort said:

Twitter is full of chortling moronic dipshit losers acting like this is some big coverup, posting gifs of Biden steering a boat, etc…

 

How much of a worthless mush brained turd goblin do you have to be to blame everything that happens on the president? Honestly, the worst thing about Trumps era of politics is that it has illuminated just how staggeringly stupid so many of my fellow Americans are and it’s really fucking depressing to share a planet with these worthless fuck faced fuckers. Like, what in the actual fuck is wrong with these people?

 

 

People are really THAT dumb? They’re really this fucking dumb? How is that even possible? How DOES THE WORLD EVEN FUNCTION WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE ARE THAT STUPID?

Sometimes I wonder if upsetting people is just the easiest way chuds can find to feel relevant in a world that keeps moving on. 

 

As the great George Carlin said: Imagine how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of all people are dumber than that. 

 

At the risk of sounding condescending or patronizing to the chuds (and probably rambling a bit): In my calmer, more rational moments I have to remind myself that most people are just doing the best they can and that if I wasn't lucky to have had the luck, background, experiences, education, etc. that I did, maybe I would be a chud too. But yeah, it gets really goddamn frustrating sometimes. 

[TUFKAK]

2 hours ago, Nokra said:

Sometimes I wonder if upsetting people is just the easiest way chuds can find to feel relevant in a world that keeps moving on. 

 

As the great George Carlin said: Imagine how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of all people are dumber than that. 

 

At the risk of sounding condescending or patronizing to the chuds (and probably rambling a bit): In my calmer, more rational moments I have to remind myself that most people are just doing the best they can and that if I wasn't lucky to have had the luck, background, experiences, education, etc. that I did, maybe I would be a chud too. But yeah, it gets really goddamn frustrating sometimes. 

As I’ve said before, a lot of these guys are fucking losers who failed at life and their dreams so it’s easier to blame others for why their life sucks than accept the reality that they just suck and didn’t have that “it” factor to get what they wanted out of life. Which then transfers into rage at others to overcome their own inadequacies. You see this from everything to the incels to socially conservatives angry at “wokeness” and then promoting this crap makes them think they’re fail life is actually relevant, that they’re special, know things nobody else does, despite not being able to differentiate socialism, communism or explain speciation. It’s the lazy way to overcome their feelings.

 

With that said I am not above rubbing my life in their faces when they annoy me with their stupidity. Like oh, bumble doesn’t work for you? I just swipe, it’s easy.

[Spork3245]

13 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

Chuds have already created the ironic "Build Back Better" meme with depictions of the bridge collapse