JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida is no stranger to bridge incidents. In Jacksonville, a Navy ship hit the Mathews Bridge back in 2013. It didn’t collapse, but it had to close for about a month.
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Jacksonville maritime attorney Lindsey Brock of McLeod Brock law firm represented the state in that investigation. And based on his experience, he said what happened Tuesday morning in Baltimore was one of the worst things that could happen when operating a ship.
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“I think what we saw was the complete collapse of the steel girder section,” Brock said. “And that really to me is a worst-case scenario.
Brock says he is still trying to grapple with the horror of Tuesday’s tragedy -- when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.
Early this morning, the ‘Dali’ vessel slammed into the bridge sending the entire structure into the water.
“It’s horror,” Brock said. “It’s tragic to see a disaster like that where you have a complete collapse of a bridge knowing there are people likely on board that bridge, that’s what was the most striking thing was the human tragedy of it.”
Florida saw a similar catastrophe happen when the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed in 1980.
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Brock said this morning’s disaster out of Baltimore could have had a lot of things go wrong – from human error to mechanical failure.
“From everything I’ve seen it looks like they did everything they could to try and avoid it,” Brock said. “It looked as though at least one anchor was let loose and caught at one point just before the allision.”
Previous reports indicate this ship lost power, and a mayday distress signal was sent out to law enforcement.
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“They were able to prevent some of the vehicles from going on to the bridge, hopefully saving some lives in that.”
Brock says it looks like the people on board were trying to slow the ship down.
“If you watch the video, there’s a lot of black smoke coming out of the stacks of the ship,” Brock said. “That generally means that the engines are working hard. And at that point, the most likely they’re going to be working to try to stop the ship and put it in reverse.”
READ: U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sea Dog damaged during a return from sea to the St. Mary’s River
But even with slower speeds, Brock says the size of the ship is what makes the impact so severe.
According to Equasis, the ‘Dali’ ship had an incident in 2016 when it hit a pier in Belgium.
“It’s never good when you’ve had a history of accidents like this,” Brock said.
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Now, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether there was criminal negligence.
READ: Tragic history: Sidney Lanier Bridge in Glynn County hit by ships in 1972 and 1987
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