The five-member National Transportation Safety Board voted on Tuesday in favor of the findings that identified a loose wire as the probable cause of a cargo ship’s collision with the Baltimore bridge that collapsed as a result last year.
Tuesday’s hearing came nearly 20 months after the 984-foot-long container ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Six of seven construction workers who were on the bridge died in the morning of March 26, 2024.
At the start of the hearing, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the bridge’s collapse “should have never occurred” and was entirely preventable.
The tragedy was preceded by electrical problems on the Dali that caused four separate blackouts. The first two blackouts happened about 10 hours before the vessel departed the Port of Baltimore, and the latter two occurred minutes before the ship struck the bridge.
The loss of electrical power was caused by a loose signal wire that stemmed from the “improper installation” of wire label banding, NTSB staff concluded. The label prevented the wire from being fully inserted into the terminal block. A low-voltage blackout then resulted in the loss of the ship’s propulsion and steering capabilities.
The engineering crew’s initial response to restoring low-voltage power during the blackout was timely, officials found. However, the crew’s actions were rendered ineffective.
Marcel Muise, a marine accident investigator at NTSB, said fuel quality and alcohol- or drug-induced impairment of the ship’s crew were not among the factors in the accident. Other factors that did not contribute to the accident were environmental or waterway conditions and mariner credentials.
Contributing to the loss of life were the “lack of countermeasures to reduce the bridge’s vulnerability to collapse due to impact by ocean-going vessels” and the “lack of effective and immediate communications to notify the highway workers to evacuate the bridge,” officials said.
In March, the NTSB released a report listing 68 bridges across 19 states that need a vulnerability assessment to determine the risk of collapse from a vessel collision. Like the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the bridges that the NTSB identified were built before 1991, when the vulnerability assessment calculation for new bridges was developed.
The Golden Gate Bridge in California, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida were among those on the list.
Notably, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed in 1980 when a freighter collided with one of the structure’s columns. The tragedy, which killed 35 people, was the direct cause of the creation of the vulnerability assessment calculation.
As for the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, the rebuilding project is expected to cost more and take longer than initially anticipated.
The Maryland Transportation Authority estimated on Monday that rebuilding the bridge will now cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, marking a significant increase from the original estimate of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. The state agency also predicted that the project will now be completed in late 2030, two years longer than the previously expected fall 2028 date.
In a statement, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) revealed that the preliminary cost and timeline were determined shortly after the crash and argued that prices have since skyrocketed under the Trump administration.
“Just as families across the country are dealing with the reality of increased costs, so is Maryland,” he said. “Trade policies out of Washington, D.C. have raised prices on everything — including essential materials we need in order to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Still, despite this new economic reality, our resolve is unwavering.”
DUFFY PRESSES MOORE ON ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ DEI GOALS FOR FRANCIS SCOTT KEY BRIDGE REBUILD
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previously pressed Moore for an update concerning reports about the rising costs. Moore said Maryland taxpayers would not foot the bill for the project, as the state pursues litigation against the owners and managers of the Dali.
The Maryland Transportation Authority is scheduled to approve the updated cost and schedule for the reconstruction project on Nov. 25.
