Chilling audio reveals scramble to clear Baltimore bridge before collapse

Audio from the moments before a massive cargo ship smashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge reveals how little time first responders had to stop traffic before the bridge collapsed.

The call, between several first responders, paints a dramatic picture of how quickly the incident happened.

“Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge. … There’s a ship approaching that just lost their steering so until we get that under control, we’ve got to stop all traffic,” one official is heard saying, warning of the incoming disaster.

“Make sure no one’s on the bridge right now. There’s a crew up there. … You might want to notify the foreman to see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily.”

Another voice is heard, saying he was about to drive onto the bridge to “grab the workers,” but at that point it was too late, and the vessel plowed into a support pillar.

The next voice is heard saying: “The whole bridge just fell down. Start, start whoever … everybody. The whole bridge just collapsed.”

Seconds later, a dispatcher alerted officers to stop all traffic on Interstate 695, a freeway that runs through the heavily industrial areas around the port.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore hailed the first responders for their quick thinking.

“Literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes,” Moore said Tuesday. “They saved lives last night.”

“We’re thankful that between the mayday and the collapse, we had officials who were able to begin to stop the flow of traffic, so more cars were not up on the bridge,” he added.

Crew aboard the Dali vessel were able to issue a mayday call in the middle of the night as the ship barrelled toward the bridge at a “very, very rapid speed,” Moore said.

As soon as the boat struck the