Last night, about 1:30AM EDT ... A cargo ship - not a barge, an actual ship, STRUCK a pillar/pillon of the FRANCIS SCOTT-KEY bridge in Baltimore, MD ...
The current story - which appears to be collaborated by video (it looked like a Live Cam type of cam) - is that the ship left port and very shortly thereafter lost its engines.
The captain, or whoever was in charge at the time (I would think the captain since they were just leaving port) IMMEDIATELY called in an SO,S and reported to 911 that they had lost control of the ship, and that it was likely they would hit the birdges somewhere down river.
Okay - let's get something straight .... youlikely have been in a car where you've had to apply your brakes to stop - the stopping distance is rather quick, this AIN'T that.
You may have seen a full semi-truck need to brake at a high speed, and it takes something like 3-5 times its own length to stop .... this AIN'T that.
You might have even seen a video of a freight train, seeing a car stuck on the tracks 1/2 mile ahead, throw on it's brakes - and still hit the car, demolishing it - it STILL AIN'T this.
This is a SHIP, going at 9 knots/hr - a little less than 10 mph, with a weight of at least 1000 TONS (a ton=2200 lbs), with NO POWER .... likely no way to STEER to avoid the bridge ... and worse yet - on a MOVING SURFACE
Remember, the ship might have engines (had they been working) .. but the water has a MIND OF ITS OWN,
The best the ship could have hoped for, at the time, was that they could somehow restart the engines and go in full reverse...
But even THAT would take a LOT of DISTANCE and power to pull off.
Just before the ship hits the pylon, they say you can see a puff of black smoke coming from the back of the ship - as if they were trying to restart the engines.
They simply didn't have time - even if they could have had enough power to veer to one side of the pylon, they would have broadsided it still.
There were 8 people ON the bridge - and just like in Minneapolis, they were doing road work ... these people happened to be filling POTHOLES, by the sounds of it.
The reports SAID that because of the 911 call, all traffic had been stopped on the bridge ...
BUT when you watch the video, you can see that there are VEHICLES still crossing shortly before the IMPACT
So, farnkly, they have NO IDEA if anyone else is missing ... at this point.
I'm pretty sure Maryland DOT will have other points of view of the bridge so they are likely to get a better idea of if there are additional people they should be looking for.
Here's what we DO know:
1)They do NOT believe this was a terrorist attack
2)it is being classified as an ACCIDENTAL IMPACT ... nothing suspicious ... for now.
3)ST LEAST 8 people were on the bridge at time of collapse
4) only 2 people have been recovered so far, one of them is in CRITICAL condition at the hospital.
5)sounds like, unlie Palestine, OH, Paul Buttejudge has been SENT there right away (I've got my theories as to why)
President Biden came out about 12:30pm EDT to give a 5 minute speech and update about the collapse.
He stayed ON POINT .. he was very percise - a really good conrast from what we've seen lately.
But it seemed that he was simply reading a stattement off a sheet of paper, very dull, very little inflection to his voice ...
But, he did stay on target.
After the speech he even took a couple of questions and answered them as best he could with what he knew...
Then some reporter asked about some political group, or thing, I didn't recognize it, and Mr. Biden had said that questions about that would be answered at a different time
He then declared the meeting done, and walked out the door.
Very nice speech, given the topic ... this was almost the guy people had hoped he would be.
Although, he looked as if it was really hurting him to walk - I suspect that the weather in DC, which is cold and rainy/snowy, is likely playing up the arthritis in his hip.
When FNC went back to OUTNUMBERED ... yup, I'm still watching it ... Harris Faulkner did something I would never had believed - she said that she hoped the people in Minnesota and Michigan were paying atention to the President avoid that question.
Wow - NOT the time for it, Ms Faulkner, no the time.
She did come back from the break and - while she didn't apologize,nor recognize her mistake - she said the President remarked that those type of questions would be answered at another time.
I gotta tell ya'
It's getting harder and harder to trust ANYONE in the news industry.
I find myself most of he time, reminding myself that EVERYONE carries a bias ... but the point of being a JOURNALIST/REPORTER is to TRY to be as UNBIASED as possible
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