Baltimore tragedy: Bridge collapse spotlights structural risks and migrant worker dangers

Five days after the bridge collapse in Baltimore, the jobs of some 15,000 people, whose work revolves around daily port operation, are on hold.

Salvage crews worked to lift the first piece of Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge from the water on Saturday, allowing barges and tugboats to access the disaster site, U.S. officials said. This marks the first step in a complex effort to reopen the city's blocked port.

Maryland transportation officials are planning to rebuild the bridge, promising to consider innovative designs or building materials to hopefully shorten a project that could take years.

Migrant workers at risk

Eight Latino migrant workers were doing road maintenance overnight Monday into Tuesday on the Key Bridge when a huge container ship smashed into a support pillar, sending almost the entire span crashing into the Patapsco River. 

Six of them died, with two pulled alive from the water. Advocates say the tragedy highlights the vulnerability of migrant laborers in the U.S. as well as the crucial role immigrants play in keeping the country running. 

"One of the reasons Latinos were involved in this accident is because Latinos do the work that others do not want to do. We have to do it because we come here for a better life. We do not come to invade the country," said Lucia Islas, president of the nonprofit group Comité Latino de Baltimore. 

Hispanic workers are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to die on the job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with construction being a particularly deadly industry. 

The workers on the Key Bridge were employed by Brawner Builders, a local construction company that has done extensive work for the state and has been cited seven times since 2018 for safety violations.

The Key Bridge was "fracture critical" and did not have any redundancy, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said earlier. 

"What that means is if a member fails, that would likely cause a portion of—or the entire bridge—to collapse," she said. 

These days, incorporating redundancies is the preferred method of building bridges, Homendy said. 

However, the Key Bridge is one of 17,468 fracture-critical bridges in the U.S. out of 615,000 total bridges, she said, citing the Federal Highway Administration. 

Roughly 42,000 bridges nationwide were rated as poor, according to 2023 data from the National Bridge Inventory. 

On Saturday, the Oklahoma State Patrol said that it closed a highway south of Sallisaw after a barge struck a bridge over the Arkansas River. 

There were no reports of injuries on the highway or the barge yet.

(With input from agencies)