Baltimore bridge collapse: Divers find two bodies in submerged truck

A red pickup truck was underwater when the Baltimore Bridge collapsed, and the bodies of two people have been recovered.

Eight construction workers were on the bridge when a boat hit it, falling into the water below.

Two of the workers were rescued that day, but the search continues for the other four, who are all presumed dead.

Salvage crews are working to dispose of hazardous materials and accident investigators are at the scene.

So far, four of the six victims of the bridge collapse have been named.

At a news conference Wednesday, Maryland State Police identified the two workers rescued by divers from the truck as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera. Mr. Fuentes is from Mexico and Mr. Cabrera is from Guatemala.

But police said divers were no longer able to safely navigate the waters due to concrete and debris found in the river. An official said they were now using sonar scans and believed vehicles that may have contained other bodies were “encased in the superstructure and concrete coming off the bridge”.

Two other missing victims have also been named: Miguel Luna from El Salvador and Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a citizen of Honduras.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said earlier that two Mexican citizens, one of whom has now been identified as Mr Fuentes, were presumed dead and the other had been rescued from the water.

Officials said late Wednesday that one person who was being treated at a hospital had been rescued.

Emergency crews spent hours Tuesday scouring the waters of the Patapsco River for six construction workers who were working on a pothole on the bridge when their boat struck it. The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search at sunset, saying frigid water temperatures and the passage of time meant the workers were presumed dead.

Officials have promised to recover the bodies of the men for their relatives.

“We have to get these families together,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters on Wednesday, adding that air, land and water had been devoted to the search for victims.

“My commitment to them is: I will devote every resource to making sure you get a resolution,” he said.

But Coast Guard Lt. Peter Gautier said Wednesday the operation was fraught with challenges.

Divers swam in icy water that was littered with pieces of metal that had fallen from the bridge.

Mr. Gautier said the cargo ship itself was stable but had more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel and lubricants on board.

There are also approximately 4,700 cargo containers on board, 56 of which contain hazardous materials.

“The Coast Guard took active action to board the ship and we have teams on board,” Mr Gautier said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy said some containers containing hazardous materials had been “tampered with.”

The U.S. Navy plans to use barges equipped with heavy-duty cranes, some capable of carrying up to 1,000 tons, to remove sections of the bridge that have fallen into the water.

Marine expert Jim Bellingham told the BBC it was vital to investigate what went wrong on the ship.

“A huge advantage is that the ship didn’t sink, so they could access the bridge records and hopefully document what happened,” he said.

Officials hope data recorders they removed from the ship overnight will provide more information.

The “Daly” suddenly lost power and sent a distress signal while sailing to Sri Lanka, and then crashed into the Baltimore Bridge.

A bridge collapse at a key port could pose risks to global supply chains and the U.S. economy, officials said.

Mr Moore said the bridge collapse could affect 8,000 jobs and called the incident a “global crisis”.

“The national economy and the global economy depend on the port,” he said, noting that $80 billion (£63.4 billion) of cargo passed through the port last year.

Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Paul Widfield stressed that replacing the bridge would not be a quick process, but promised at a news conference Wednesday that officials were working “as quickly as possible to come up with a design to replace the bridge” that would allow the bridge to be replaced. Port restoration and getting the community back up and running”.

Experts say the Key Bridge collapse could cost up to $15m (£11.8m) a day until the waterway reopens.

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland said that “thanks to the Biden administration,” he is confident the state will have the necessary resources to restore and begin work on replacing the bridge.

“Our priority is to open shipping routes because of the impact it has on our country and global supply chains,” he said.

Investigators also hope to determine whether dirty fuel played a role in the fatal crash. Maritime experts say contaminated fuel could cause power outages on ships because it can cause problems for the ship’s main generator.