Two best friends were walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on Nov. 7 when a cargo ship hit the iconic structure. They immediately turned to Twitter.
“The one time I step foot on the Brooklyn bridge a boat decides to hit into it,” tweeted Kelly Bradley.
“OMG we were walking on the Brooklyn bridge and police came and told us we need to get off because a f—ing boat hit the bridge. ALMOST DIED,” tweeted Jessica.
The next morning, news reports said that a cargo ship named Rainbow Quest —a 590 foot ship heading out to sea— had been leaving the Brooklyn Navy Yard and heading down the East River when the ship’s mast scraped the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge. No one was injured and there was no damage to the bridge.
Still, accidents like this do happen from time to time, according to experts, for a number of reasons. The worst-case scenario of an accident like this is fatalities or damage to the bridge.
Jeffrey Wright, chief engineer for the New York City Bridge Authority, said there could have been a number of reasons why the cargo ship ran into the Brooklyn Bridge—like the captain could have fallen asleep, the lights on the boat or bridge may have malfunctioned, or the water current could have pushed the boat under a low part of the bridge.
The Coast Guard has the final word on the cause of an accident, but for now, it isn’t talking. The Coast Guard did not return requests for comment.
But according to Paul Liles, assistant director of engineering for the Department of Transportation in Georgia—where the largest single-operator port in North America, Georgia Ports Authority’s Savannah Container Terminal, is located—the Coast Guard investigates accidents and holds a hearing to make any recommendations to avoid similar situations. But, Liles added that the Coast Guard most likely won’t have a hearing for the recent Brooklyn Bridge accident because it was “very minor.” Such a hearing would just be a formality, he said.
Ships hitting bridges is a common accident, according to Liles. “These things happen quite often, more than you’d think. It doesn’t usually make the news unless there are fatalities or something,” he said.
Experts say there are a number of reasons why these types of accidents occur, including mechanical failures and negligence. Liles explained that a mechanical failure occurs when anything electronic that operates the boat—from the steering mechanism to the radar —stops functioning properly.
The most horrific example of a ship’s mechanical failure took place in Tampa Bay, Fla., according to Liles. On May 9, 1980, during a heavy downpour, a 20,000-ton ship crashed into the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, killing 35 people. The cause of the accident was the heavy rain blocking the ship’s radar, Liles said.
Human error and negligence are the second most common reason why ships hit bridges, Liles said. For example, he said, captains can get lost. “We have had this where people are just on the wrong river. They are just totally lost. It’s hard to do now with GPS, but it has happened,” Liles said.
The best way to avoid these types of accidents is for engineers to think of water levels and ships while designing a bridge, said Wright, chief engineer for the New York City Bridge Authority.
“It’s a big part of the design. You have to make sure your bridge is high enough for the mean high water level,” Wright said.
Liles agreed, saying that engineers have to meet the requirements of vertical clearance and horizontal clearance set by the Coast Guard. These requirements take into account a ship sailing under the bridge, Liles said.
However, it is increasingly difficult to build bridges with the proper clearances because ships are being built bigger, Liles said. “It is a real struggle because as soon as you make a wider bridge or a taller bridge, it isn’t very long before they make a bigger ship or a taller ship.”
After the engineers design their bridge to meet the two clearance requirements, they also build pier protection, Liles said. Pier protection involves building the pillars of a bridge on land, or to create an island of land around the pier, so that no boat can hit the base of the bridge, Liles said.
Engineers also think about pedestrians when designing their bridges, particularly when it comes to separating pedestrians from cars, Liles said. There is only a small chance that a ship will hit a bridge, so pedestrians have nothing to worry about, Liles said.
“You have a much greater risk of just driving around in your car and being hit by another vehicle or being a pedestrian and getting hit by a vehicle. That’s probably a much, much greater risk,” Liles said.
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