Again, a moment to pause & appreciate the cool professionalism of those in & around the Key Bridge at 1:24 am Tuesday. Ship’s pilot radios in that ship has lost steerage & will hit bridge. Someone (maritime control?) transmits urgent alert to Maryland/Balt police dispatch… —>
2/ Police dispatched with just a few crisp phrases—ship has lost steering, close the bridge to traffic—and race to do just that. No time for confusion. No time for … ‘What do you mean, close the bridge? Who says?’ 4 minutes, alert to collapse. Bridge successfully closed… —>
3/ That’s amazing. Again, a system worked—a government system. All those people just ordinary frontline workers in anonymous, sometimes invisible jobs. Maritime radio operators. Police/fire dispatchers. Bridge police & state police. All working 11p to 7a o’night shift. —>
4/ Cool, direct, urgent, successful. Maybe not a college degree or a 6-figure salary among them—and they used their training & experience at the most critical, high-pressure moment to save lives. All day, every day—that happens & we don’t see it. That’s your ‘deep state.’ —>
5/ Just in Port of Baltimore, 45 cargo container ships come & go every 24 hours. 16,000 ships a year. They require all this guidance all the time (and US has 8 LARGER ports). Each ship with 5,000 containers loaded & unloaded. Not to mention… —>
6/ The 8 construction workers on the bridge—patching potholes in the middle of the night, so the road stays maintained, at a time that reduces inconvenience to us (and yes, is easier for them too because of low traffic). Every night… —>
7/ Every night, 5 or 6 days a wk, men & women just like them do that dangerous work on interstates & bridges in all 50 states. Here’s the moment: An officer who closed one of the approaches says on radio…‘Can we notify the construction workers? Can we call the supervisor?’ —>
8/ The officer was ready to drive out & warn the workers when someone on the radio — seconds later — said, The bridge is down. The whole bridge. That unnamed officer had been immediately thinking about how to save those guys out on the bridge—workers just like him. Thanks. —>
@cfishman It does seem like a gap in the system that the workers weren't automatically notified during the initial alert.
@cfishman Sobbing for these souls and also grateful so many more didn’t lose their lives.
@cfishman And these were immigrants from Central America and Mexico. Working the night shift to fix our roads. Hard working men earning money to raise their families.
@cfishman Construction workers should have had radios! They were in their cars and maybe could have driven off if warned by police who were on radios!!!
@cfishman Such a traumatic nightmare for the witnesses who wanted to do more. May they and the victims have peace.