8 men hit the 47F water at 130AM. They were from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. They were in their 30s an early 40s.

[Stinky The Clown]

They were on the bridge doing road deck repairs.

Two were rescued. One refused medical help. One was listed as critical when taken to a trauma center. Amazingly, he was just released.

Six are still missing. All were married. They have kids. They came here for a better life.

As of this writing - 216pm EDT - Coast Guard are still considering this a search and rescue, not a recovery.

[Easterncedar]

1. Oh no

[yorkster]

2. I knew it. Dammit.

[Renew Deal]

3. Link?

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Local TV

Look on WJZ or WBAL

[RockRaven]

4. Beyond these men there may be more casualties.

These men are known to be missing because they were working on the bridge. But there were vehicles crossing the bridge too, and those people may not be known to be missing yet. There have been 5-7 vehicles spotted thus far by sonar on the river bottom (reports varying by source).

[Straw Man]

9. I heard a report that the bridge was closed to traffic after the ship radioed a Mayday.

Is it possible that those vehicles on the river bottom belonged to the work crew? Personal or work vehicles?

[RockRaven]

10. That is the belief but requires confirmation.

They say they closed it "just in time" to prevent cars being on it at time of collapse. And they think the vehicles spotted by sonar are accounted for/known ID, and empty. From the video I watched it looked like one set of headlights was moving at the time of impact, but they would know better than me.

[DemInBuckhead]

11. There's a time lapse video out there somewhere

Maybe the last 15 minutes or so before the bridge was hit. It looked like they were able to stop the traffic with a minute or two to spare.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. I could see flashing lights on the bridge up until the moment of collapse.

I figured the lights were on the work vehicles.

[avebury]

28. That might be possible. It was reported that some of the

workers were sitting in their vehicles on a break when the barge hit the bridge. The police ran out of time to let them know about what was about to happen.

[canetoad]

19. I found a slightly larger video

And counted three of four vehicle lights on the first span to collapse then at least another one set possibly two, on the second span that collapsed in the opposite direction to the first.

[BigMin28]

5. My car was once

Swept off a road into floodwaters. It was raining so hard I couldn't see the water. Although I did manage to get out of the car, I almost drowned. It was night, on a country road. For the first time in forty something years, this shook me up. All I can think of today is those poor people falling into that cold dark water. It breaks my heart.

[GreenWave]

6. That Dali was also involved in a previous crash

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-ship-dali/73105394007/

[LoisB]

7. Until they find otherwise, I will hope all six will be found alive even though it is not likely.

[cilla4progress]

12. And yet all we ever hear about immigrants

is slams and insults.

Generated by youknowwho...

[mountain grammy]

14. Heartbreaking

Just working 😪

[bdamomma]

24. exactly

mountain grammy, just working , to support their families. Fixing potholes at 1.30 a.m. So sad.

[et tu]

15. heart breaking

and the one who refused aid might be here with out a green card.
hope he is ok and i feel so badly for them and their families~

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Tragic.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. I so hope they saved themselves and

Left the scene as quickly as they could for personal reasons. That would mean there is hope they are still alive, even though it would affirm that they didn’t trust our system.

[Kid Berwyn]

18. Probably wearing work boots and winter coats...

…working over water, they likely wore life vests and safety harnesses. They probably never had a chance, though, with all that concrete and steel collapsing around them in what would be a nightmarish death.

[Arthur_Frain]

20. Ahh! I wondered as I saw a portion of the bridge lever up rapidly

If anyone was caught in it.

I hope they turn up, it’s still early.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

21. ...

[bdamomma]

22. Fixing

pot holes, just doing their jobs, and losing their lives. So sad for those who lost their lives. Recovery for those who survived.

[ecstatic]

23. Has anyone explained why those men weren't warned by the state troopers?

I heard that the ship issued a mayday which allowed troopers to block the bridge, yet the workers on the bridge were not told?

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Tragic timing

Bridge authorities knew there was a crew working. Within seconds (literally) of the Mayday they endeavored to stop traffic. Within 30 seconds that was accomplished. Simultaneously they were directed to get the work crew off. But a mere 20 seconds after traffic was stopped the bridge collapsed.

It came down to seconds.

(no link. reported on TV)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. Probably the only way to warn them is drive out on the bridge with the ship about to hit.

How else could the authorities contact the workers? I doubt they had their phone contact information.

Maybe evacuation alarms installed on long bridges will come out of this.

[csziggy]

31. MSNBC played the audio of the emercency calls

Between the harbor pilot and police.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6349808520112

There just was no time.

[pinkstarburst]

34. I listened to the call on CNN

They had a minute at most. There just wasn't time. It's a miracle they got traffic stopped at all.

On the recording, the troopers get the news that a ship has lost steering and is approaching the bridge, and order the bridge closed to traffic. They also ask if there is a work crew on the bridge and talk about getting word to the foreman to clear them off the bridge as well, but 1 minute, 6 seconds into the recording, the bridge collapses. There was just no time.

[Deuxcents]

26. I read where that bridge was almost 2 miles long. Not much time to get off the bridge

With such a short warning period. It’s so tragic..

[brooklynite]

29. What is the significance of where they were from?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. Language barrier. If there were some loudspeaker system on the bridge delivering a warning, it

would no doubt first send out the warning in English and only after that in Spanish.

[TBF]

33. No warning system on bridge no matter which language,

but the deeper point is that we have folks like these - immigrants and/or guest workers - doing these kinds of thankless jobs all over our country. Not the best pay, certainly not the best conditions, and they literally had no chance in this situation. They were fixing potholes so rich folks like *some people on this message board* can get to work more easily in the morning.

Granted democrats - even the latte liberals - are usually not the first to complain about immigrants. We know which party excels in that. But the issue is still important and deserves to be mentioned/discussed.

[AverageOldGuy]

30. Were they . . .

. . . "illegal aliens taking jobs away from hard-working Americans"?

Three Mexican nationals were among those on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed Tuesday, Mexico’s president said Wednesday morning.

One of those individuals was rescued and is alive, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, describing him as “injured” but “safe."

Two are still missing, he added, saying that his administration is in touch with those families, who are being assisted by diplomatic officials.

. . .

A father of three from El Salvador has been identified as one of the missing, as has a father of two from Honduras — both of whom had lived in the US for almost two decades. Two Guatemalans are among those unaccounted for, and some of those missing are Mexican nationals. Divers resumed recovery efforts Wednesday.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-03-27-24/index.html

Why were there no "hard-working Americans" on the bridge at 1:30 AM patching potholes? It couldn't be that "hard-working Americans" don't want this cold, brutal work . . . right?

Growing up Mississippi in the 1950's I remember there was a lot of work that was "n####r work" -- no white man would touch it, no matter how poor and how much in need of work he was.

[malaise]

35. So sad