Charleston bridge closed as out-of-control ship powers through harbor

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 116 points – Charleston bridge closed as out-of-control ship powers through harbor
theguardian.com

Police cleared traffic and pedestrians from bridge as cargo ship went nearly full throttle through South Carolina harbor

A large cargo ship lost control of its engines and went nearly full throttle through a South Carolina harbor prompting the closure of one of the busiest bridges in the state.

The incident comes after an out-of-control cargo ship smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on 26 March after losing power, bringing the span down and killing six construction workers.

Harbor pilots in Charleston on Wednesday were able to help the nearly 1,000ft (300-meter) ship, which was going nearly 20mph (32km/h), get under the Ravenel Bridge safely and eventually anchor several miles offshore while the Coast Guard investigates, said Randy Preston, commander of the US Coast Guard’s Charleston section.

25

Oh good, get ready for a week of right-wing pundits blaming DEI for this one too.

My wife left me for DEI

blaming DEI for this one too.

Dale Earnhardt, Inc.? Come on, he's been dead since 2001. Let him rest in peace in turn 4.

Is this the 2024 version of train crashes? Rarely heard about this happening before and now we’ve had 2

Probably, in that when one thing happens, the news latches on to anything similar because they know it'll get views.

Don't forget The Ever Given! Granted it was a few years ago but still, lots of bad ship stuff in the past few years. Plus the Houthi attacks....not a great time to be a sailor

The politically correct term is seamen. /s

You couldn’t get me in a room with sailors.

But I couldn’t stand in a room with a group of seamen.

Yep. This and Boeing. It's astonishing how easily manipulated our view of reality is, and it's all because we can't tell what's a real risk and what's not. Humans are stupid at assessing risk in today's enormous world, we just did not evolve for it.

For example, people think getting randomly shot, murdered or raped is likely. Half of gun deaths are suicides and the vast majority of the remainder are bad people in bad places. The vast majority of rapes and murders are by someone known to the victim. (That's not victim blaming, only saying such violence doesn't often come out of the clear blue sky.)

OTOH, getting smeared to death on the road is truly random. Yet we all happily jump in our cars, roll hard down the interstate and think nothing of it. The news doesn't harp on it, that sort of death is understood, nothing sexy to report.

After a ship knocked down the Sunshine Skyway, they put stanchions in front of the closest bridge supports large enough to stop a ship.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/27/how-safety-measures-protect-floridas-sunshine-skyway-bridge-and-what-can-go-wrong/

However, the new Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which opened in 1987, was built with safety in mind, with features meant to make navigating in and out of Tampa Bay easier for large ships and to lower the risk that the bridge will get hit or suffer catastrophic damage.

“These measures include elevating the bridge, widening the channel, and incorporating two layers of protection for bridge piers. Most notably, features such as ‘dolphins,’ which serve as physical barriers as well as rock islands that completely surround the main channel supports and go all the way to the sea floor,” said Kristen Carson, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation.

I know that it adds cost and time, but unless and until they can stick large-enough guards around the bridge, I wonder if it's worth using tugs to get the ships in and out. One collapsed bridge pays for a whole lot of tug trips.

Why did we ever stop using tugs?

We haven't, for areas where ships can't safely navigate on their own.

I blame Republican Governor Henry McMaster and Mayor Cogswell for their woke DEI policies. This accident could have easily been avoided if they hadn't politicized their hiring practices. /s

You're allowed to be pig-headedly wrong.

Edit: this comment was sent pre "/s" edit from OP.

Sometimes, I forget how poorly sarcasm carries over the internet. ><

Yeah IDK why some people hate the sarcasm tag. Sarcasm is conveyed through tone, which text doesn't have the same way as spoken language. So if you read something fucking stupid, it's impossible to know if the person is being sarcastic or just plain fucking stupid haha

We all do, no worries. Thanks for clarifying!