An Uber driver, Gayle Fairman, narrowly avoided disaster thanks to the timely intervention of a vigilant police officer, preventing her from crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge just moments before it collapsed. Fairman was on her way to pick up a passenger from the Amazon facility in Sparrows Point, aiming to drop them off in the Brooklyn neighborhood across the bridge, following a call she received at 1:16 a.m.
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According to the New York Post, Fairman recounted to WBAL how a delay in her passengers’ arrival might have inadvertently saved their lives. She speculated that had the passengers been on time, they could have been on the bridge during its catastrophic failure. At approximately 1:30 a.m., positioned at the head of the line to cross the bridge, Fairman was stopped by a police officer who informed her of the bridge’s collapse, a reality she couldn’t verify through the darkness of the night and her closed car windows.
Unbeknownst to Fairman at the time, the collapse was caused by a massive cargo ship, the Dali, striking the bridge. This detail came to light through social media footage, which depicted the vessel crashing into the bridge and causing its downfall into the Patapsco River. The incident prompted an immediate response from local law enforcement, triggered by a distress call from the Dali’s crew indicating the ship had lost steering control.
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In a race against time, two nearby officers managed to halt traffic on both ends of the 1.6-mile bridge span, mere seconds before the 130,000-ton vessel’s collision led to the bridge’s demise. This rapid response likely saved numerous lives, though eight workers on a pothole repair crew, caught unawares during a meal break on the bridge, were thrown into the chilly waters below. The aftermath saw two individuals rescued, while two others were tragically found deceased within a submerged vehicle.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has since launched an investigation to determine the crew’s actions leading up to the crash. Experts in the field, including Karl MacGibbon of Coffey Modica and attorney Michael Mezzacappa, emphasized the crew’s immediate decision-making under duress. While it’s premature to judge the crew’s choices without a full understanding of the circumstances, their prompt communication with Maryland Transportation Authority, enabling the swift deployment of law enforcement, has been praised as a critical factor in preventing further tragedy.