Maryland shipping experts have been warning for a decade about the danger of ship accidents on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimorewhich collapsed in March after colliding with a container ship, as reported this Thursday by the newspaper Washington Post.

In March, the nearly 300-metre-long cargo ship Dali, flying a Singaporean flag, collided with one of the central supports while leaving the port of Baltimore bridge which led to its collapse and the death of six workers who were working on repairs in the middle of the night.

For nearly a decade, as ever larger cargo ships used the Port of Baltimore, a group called the Port Safety and Coordination Committee analyzed the bridges Key and the one that crosses the Chesapeake Bay, among others.

“Maryland helmsmen—the specialists who board and escort larger vessels as they arrive and leave port—raised the alarm, in particular, that local bridges needed more protection redirected ships, documents show,” the newspaper said.

“There is no indication in the documents that what was discussed by the safety committee led to the creation of new physical protection for the Key Bridge,” he added.

Minutes of the meetings of this committee “were distributed among the agencies represented in the group, according to Frank Hamons, who helped create the committee when he was dredging manager for the Maryland Port Authority in the 1980s and led it until 2013,” reports mail.

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However, the newspaper added: “It is unclear which department actually saw these protocols.and many former senior Maryland transportation officials said mail that they don’t even remember being told about discussions about protecting bridges.”

Federal authorities continue to investigate the cause of the Dali crash.

Last Monday, the Dali was towed a four-kilometre journey to the Seagirt Marine Terminal from where the bridge collapsed and where he became trapped under a destroyed structure.

A bridge collapse that affected a route on Interstate 95 and traffic between Washington and New York killed six workers. immigrants from Central America and Mexicowho were doing repairs on the road at night.

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A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report found that the day before the accident Dali lost power twice while docked at the Port of Baltimore.

For its part, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a criminal investigation, and Baltimore city government sues company that owns it, Grace Ocean Private Limited and administrator Synergy Marine PTE LTD, both from Singapore, for this accident, which caused losses in the millions of dollars. (EFE)