Baltimore Key Bridge ‘not made to withstand direct impact from vessel’, says US transport secretary

The Francis Scott Key Bridge that collapsed in Baltimore was “simply not made to withstand a direct impact from a vessel that weighs about 200m pounds”, the US transport secretary has said.

Pete Buttigieg made his comments during a news conference on Wednesday (27 March), after it was revealed two bodies had been pulled from the Patapsco river.

The exact cause of the crash in the early hours of Tuesday, which has been described by authorities as a “ developing mass casualty incident,” is still unknown.

At around 1.30am ET local time, the Singapore-flagged vessel Dali rammed into a column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, leading multiple parts of the 1.6 mile-long bridge to tumble into the water.