\u2018We do not believe that we\u2019re going to find any of these individuals alive,\u2019 Admiral Shannon
\n BALTIMORE
\nRescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed into the span.
\nSearch divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.
\nThe disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.
\nAs the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the missing workers was suspended on Tuesday evening, 18 hours after they were thrown from the fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge into the frigid waters at the mouth of the Patapsco River.
\n\u201cWe do not believe that we\u2019re going to find any of these individuals alive,\u201d Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a briefing.
\nMaryland State Police and U.S. Coast Guard officials said diminished visibility and increasingly treacherous currents in the wreckage-strewn channel made continued search efforts on the river too risky to continue overnight.
\nStarting at six in the morning (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, \u201cwe\u2019re hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people,\u201d state police Colonel Roland Butler told reporters late on Tuesday.
\nRescuers pulled two other workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one of them was hospitalized. The six presumed to have perished included workers from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.
\nOfficials said all eight were part of a work crew repairing potholes on Key Bridge\u2019s road surface when the Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali, leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a support pylon of the bridge at about one thirty at mid night. (0530 GMT).
\nA trestled section of the two and half kilometers span almost immediately crumpled into the water, sending vehicles and workers into the river.
\nThe 948-foot (289 m) ship had reported a loss of propulsion shortly before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving transportation authorities time to halt traffic on the bridge before the crash. That move likely prevented a higher death toll, authorities said.
\nIt was unclear whether authorities also tried to alert the work crew ahead of the impact.
\nMaryland Governor Wes Moore said at a Tuesday news briefing the bridge was up to code with no known structural issues. There was no evidence of foul play, officials said.
\nShip\u2019s safety record
\nThe Baltimore wreck drew attention to the vessel\u2019s safety record. The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
\nAn inspection in 2023 carried out in Chile found \u201cpropulsion and auxiliary machinery\u201d deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.
\nBut Singapore\u2019s Maritime and Port Authority said in a statement that the vessel passed two separate foreign-port inspections in June and September 2023. It said a faulty fuel pressure gauge was rectified before the vessel departed the port following its June 2023 inspection.
\nVideo footage on social media showed the vessel slamming into the Key Bridge in darkness, the headlights of vehicles visible on the span as it crashed into the water and the ship caught fire.
\nAll 22 crew members on the ship, owned by Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, were accounted for, its management company, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, reported.
\nU.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said closure of the port would have a \u201cmajor and protracted impact to supply chains.\u201d The Port of Baltimore handles more automobile freight than any other U.S. port\u2013more than 750,000 vehicles in 2022, according to port data, as well as container and bulk cargo ranging from sugar to coal.
\nStill, economists and logistics experts said they doubted the port closure would unleash a major U.S. supply chain crisis or major spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the Eastern Seaboard.
\nThe loss of the bridge also snarled roadways across Baltimore, forcing motorists onto two other congested harbor crossings and raising the specter of nightmarish daily commutes and regional traffic detours for months or even years to come.
\nThe bridge, named for the author of the Star-Spangled Banner, carries about 31,000 vehicles across the harbor daily and serves as the main route for motorists between New York and Washington seeking to avoid downtown Baltimore. It opened in 1977.
\nPresident Joe Biden promised on Tuesday to visit Baltimore, 40 miles (64 km) away, as soon as possible and said he wanted the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.
\nNational Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said a team of 24 agency personnel were on the scene to investigate the accident. She said Singapore safety personnel would arrive in Baltimore on Wednesday.
\nTuesday\u2019s disaster may be the worst U.S. bridge collapse since 2007, when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis plunged into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018We do not believe that we\u2019re going to find any of these individuals alive,\u2019 Admiral Shannon BALTIMORE Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-396727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n