Baltimore Bridge Collapse Update Leaves Key Questions Unanswered

Officials in Maryland provided an update on the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, but many questions were left unanswered.

On Tuesday morning, Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld spoke to reporters to provide an update on the collapse, which happened when a boat struck a portion of the bridge at around 1:30 a.m. local time.

However, Wiedefeld said it was too early in the investigation to reveal many key portions of the incident.

Unanswered questions:

• Wiedefeld said he was unable to say how many people were on the bridge when the incident occurred, and was unable to confirm the number of people that were rescued, or the number of fatalities.
• He said that it is believed there were construction crews working on concrete repairs on the bridge at the time of the incident, but was unable to say the exact number of workers there. Wiedefeld also said it was too early in the investigation to say how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collision and collapse.
• When asked if officials were ruling out any “intentional motive,” Wiedefeld said “we don’t see anything that relates to that at the time, it’s an open investigation but there’s nothing that points to that direction.”
• Wiedefeld also said it was too early to say if the ship, identified as the Dali, had lost power while leaving the port in Maryland or when the first 911 call came in.

What we know:

“At approximately 1:30 a cargo ship leaving the port of Baltimore struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge. This caused a catastrophic collapse of the bridge. First responders from the Maryland Transportation Authority, the toll authority, and our federal, state and local partners immediately responded to the scene,” Wiedefeld said. “At this time, this is an active search and rescue mission.”

Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore City Fire Department, told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday that officials were searching for at least seven individuals.

He said it remains too early to know how many people were affected by the bridge collapse, but called it a “developing mass casualty event.”

“Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people,” Cartwright told AP.

Data from Marine Traffic and Vessel Finder revealed that a ship under the name Dali was traveling from the port of Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka.