Thoughts about the ship that wrecked the Key Bridge

[PJMcK]

One detail I haven’t seen anywhere is the speed of the ship when it hit the bridge. The Dali displaces (basically weighs) 95,000 tons when empty. Although she can carry 10,000 containers, on this voyage there were 4,700 of them. I don’t know the cargo’s weight but when added to the ship’s size, that’s a huge chunk of mass. In this case, mass X speed will eventually be calculated for future bridge re-construction.

When sailing, I’ve encountered many ships of many different kinds. Their crews are generally professional and polite. They travel at a pretty good speed and in the open seas, 20-25 mph is pretty fast. It can take these ships as much as ten miles to come to a full stop! That’s how massive they are. Since the ship was still in the harbor, my guess is the Dali was moving around 5-10 mph, still a lot of energy to hit the bridge

My next thought is about responsibility. Who is at fault? The ship’s captain is responsible for the sea-worthiness of his vessel. If the reports of serious electrical problems prior to departure are accurate, why did the captain set sail? Was he under pressure from the ship’s owners? Did the owners skimp on maintenance? The pilot appears to have done everything as well as could be expected on a crippled vessel. Was the bridge design at fault? There weren’t any barriers around the piers that held up the bridge like there are on most bridges. (These fender systems actually help navigate to the center of the bridges’ transit points.) are there other inflection points to consider? I suspect the lawsuits will be plentiful.

In the end, bad luck played a role, too. If the ship had lost power five minutes later, it would have cleared the bridge and entered the Chesapeake Bay. It would still be a serious situation but in relatively open waters, tug boats could have come to the Dali’s rescue.

This was a terrible catastrophe and we’re fortunate that so few sadly perished.