Maryland bridge tragedy has the ring of familiarity
Tuesday morning’s news that Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge had been struck by a ship, and collapsed into the Patapsco River, was eerily reminiscent of perhaps the darkest day in Tampa Bay history.
At approximately 7:34 a.m. on Friday, May 9, 1980, a 606-foot freighter, Summit Venture, glanced one of the support columns of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, causing it to buckle and break at its highest point. More than 1,200 feet of roadway tumbled.
Seven vehicles, making their way south, fell 150 feet into the bay. The last to fly off the ragged tear in the bridge apex was a Greyhound bus with 26 passengers aboard.
Thirty-five people died. It is still the worst ship/bridge tragedy in history.
There were two Skyway spans in 1980, one carrying traffic south, the other north. At just under 20,000 tons, Summit Venture was riding “light,” inbound from the Gulf to the Port of Tampa to take on a load of crushed phosphate.
The massive squall that overtook the ship, half a mile from the bridge, had not been forecast by the National Weather Service.
With few options – heavy ships, which don’t have brakes, require a mile to come to a complete stop – harbor pilot John Lerro made the decision to continue the transit and pass under the bridge based on limited radar and actual visibility.
There was just one survivor. Gulfport truck driver and maintenance man Wesley MacIntire was cresting the bridge when Summit Venture, blown ever-so-slightly off-course by the massive, sudden storm, struck Pier 2S.
MacIntire’s Ford Courier pickup truck dropped with the falling roadway; it flew off the end and ricocheted off the ship’s hull, then sank to the bottom of the shipping channel.
MacIntire swam to the surface and was rescued by Summit Venture crewmen, ordered by Lerro and the ship’s master to take to the deck and look for survivors.
But there were to be no more.
Catalyst Senior Writer and Editor Bill DeYoung is the author of Skyway: The True Story of Tampa Bay’s Signature Bridge and the Man Who Brought it Down.
Janice Buchanan Swartz
March 26, 2024at9:13 pm
A day we will NEVER forget! From instant sunshine to darkness–both in the weather outside and in the depths of our inner hearts. May God continue to support all persons still affected to this very day.
Jopie Helsen
March 26, 2024at4:43 pm
I remembered that they very well, I was getting my sailboat ready to take my family to Sarasota and had the VHF on. I remember the Coast Guard radio operator repeatedly asking if the person he was talking to him was really saying the bridge was down and part of it was resting in the bottom of the ship channel. We sailed through the South side part of the channel and as we sailed over the channel we learned that there were passengers on the bus. We were very silent and I finally said, “let’s say a prayer”. That day will stay with me the rest of my life.