USA TODAY Emily Le Coz and Austin Fast 4/11/2024
Map: Where ships have struck bridges, lost power
This map shows issues categorized as "major" or "significant" marine casualties and “serious marine incidents” in U.S. Coast Guard incident investigation reports that mention a freight ship, freight barge, tank ship, tank barge or ocean cruise vessel striking a bridge. It also includes cases where ships lost power, propulsion or steering within two kilometers of a highway bridge over navigable waters. Don't see a map?
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At least 6,000 times in the past 22 years – an average of more than five times a week – crews on board massive cargo ships, oil tankers, container barges and even cruise vessels have reported what befell the Dali: a loss of power, loss of propulsion, loss of steering, or some combination of the three, a USA TODAY data analysis reveals.
At least 900 of them occurred near bridges identified by the U.S. Department of Transportation as spanning navigable waters. The vast majority were classified as routine but a dozen were labeled major or significant.
Some damaged both the ships and the structures they hit. Others left crew members with broken bones or other injuries. But most, including cases remarkably similar to what happened last month in Baltimore, have never been made public, buried deep in a federal database.
Often the dividing line between major and routine came down to a last-minute effort by the crew or rescue teams.
Statistically, the experts said, such failures are more likely to happen in ports and harbors, as well as in close proximity to bridges, because that’s when the ships are under the most stress.
“That’s when you’re giving all your engine orders,” said Calnan, the assistant professor of marine transportation who ran the simulation at Cal Maritime for USA TODAY. Calnan has operated large ships himself and has experienced what is sometimes known as a dark ship, though only while out at sea.
“It’s just like in the car; if you’re going 65 on the highway, there’s not a lot happening,” he said, “But when you’re doing a lot of stop and go and changing engine orders, it’s putting stress on the engine, and if something is mechanically wrong with the engine itself, there’s a higher chance it will happen when you’re using it more.”
USA TODAY’s data analysis revealed at least 2,600 bridge strikes occurring in U.S. waters since 2002, the earliest year for which such data is available. Three of these allisions were fatal, claiming 16 lives in all. The majority, however, were minor – a ship’s antenna or mast hitting a bridge, or a barge clipping a bridge’s protective fender.
But maritime problems – which international governing agencies call “casualty incidents” – have been steadily rising over the past decade, according to a report by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a global maritime data and analytics company.
Such incidents reinforce the need for extra precaution when ships navigate near critical infrastructure, said Pandey of Massachusetts Maritime, who advocated for mandatory tug escorts regardless of the ship, its cargo or the port.
“Increasingly, the use of tugs is considered too old-fashioned, maybe too expensive, simply because we have the technology,” he said. “It’s something we don’t talk enough about.”
Worldwide, between 1960 and 2015 ships or barges caused 35 major bridge collapses that killed 342 people, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.More than half occurred in the United States.
More:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/04/11/baltimore-bridge-collapse-ship-blackouts-incidents/73262682007/
