Motorists Drive Off Collapsed Bridge | Last Moments

it's a moment we've all seen a thousand times before a car teetering precariously on the edge of certain doom but despite how many times you may have seen it can you think of a single example that wasn't staged for the screen a real car perched on a real precipice with real occupants genuinely fearing for their lives here's one this is from the tasman bridge collapse when a large ship plowed through the bridge's supports sending a huge section of road plummeting 45 meters below our story takes us to australia 1975. more specifically hobart the capital city of australia's island state tasmania it was around half nine at night on a sunday january 5th when the bulk carrier lake illawarra was carrying 10 000 tons of zinc ore concentrate up the darwin river the dharma river divides the city of hobart into two east and west the two halves of the city are connected by the tasman bridge which is over a kilometer in length and suspended some 45 meters above the derwent river the lake illawarra would have to pass under the tasman bridge then it made its approach near the eastern shore the ship slowed down to allow for safer passage but it was struggling to align itself with the span it intended to pass through at this lower speed the captain struggled as he wrestles the ship against the strong current all the while the ship drifted towards the bridge eventually the captain realized he would not right the ship before it reached the span and called out full speed astern attempting to pull the ship back out of its current predicament but it was too late lake illawarra crashed through two pile cappings bringing down the piers and with them three now unsupported spans of the bridge around 130 meters of roadway came crashing down some straight into the water's depths some onto the ship's deck fortunately the sunday night traffic was light and there were no cars on the section of bridge that collapsed however there were still motorists traveling across the bridge which was now split by a huge divide unbeknownst to them murray ling was traveling with his wife and two kids when suddenly the lights on the bridge flickered off alerting them that something may be wrong murray saw the car as he and his wife watched ahead for a potential accident though they were straining to see through the foggy night on the unlit roadway there were two cars ahead allowing them to follow their lights but suddenly these two cars disappeared they had driven straight over the edge mary slammed on his brakes bringing the car to a halt just before the plunge however the reaction time of the car behind them was not as quick and it slammed into the back of murray's car the car was propelled forward but thankfully stopped with both its front wheels hanging over the side murray helps his family out of the car then notices two cars coming up in the adjacent lane he tries to wave them down but the cars drive past one even has to swerve to avoid murray both cars fly off the edge in total five people across four cars have been killed marie ling does manage to wave down a bus full of people which swerves and crashes into the side railings the occupants unaware that the accident they have suffered at the hands of the madman on the road had saved their lives but there was another motorist on the way frank and sylvia manley were traveling in frank's holden monero apprehensive at the lack of lights on the bridge frank slowed to 40 kilometers per hour and the two kept their eyes peeled for something wrong there were stationary taillights ahead suddenly sylvia noticed the white line down the middle of the road appeared to abruptly end realizing the bridge wasn't there she called out to frank to stop he slammed on the brakes the monero screeched towards the edge it looked like they were going to slide into the drop as the front wheels passed over the brink but thankfully the car came to a stop and balanced on the large automatic transmission pan as the two got out frank peered over the edge below he saw what he described as a massive black hole what he was seeing was a whirlpool the lake illawarra had sunk seven crew members were trapped on board and drowned as the ship went down with the two cars teetering on the edge the tragedy was over but the story wasn't emergency services as well as private citizens and businesses with boats at their disposal descended on the scene saving the lives of many lake illawarra crew members a court of marine inquiry later found the captain of the vessel guilty of careless navigation and suspended his certificate of competency for six months in the wake of the incident hobart found itself lacking a bridge which saw heavy use since it connected the two sides of the city this image shows the importance of the bridge in relation to the area residents were forced to travel kilometers away to make use of a bridge out in the suburbs for some what was once a three-minute trip across the tasman bridge had turned into an hour and a half long journey this was incredibly frustrating for residents made worse by the slow progress in repairing the bridge before construction work could even begin a lengthy process of surveying and clearing the massive debris underwater had to be carried out it would be nearly three years before the bridge was reopened this had a significant impact on the city especially the eastern shore which was home to about 30 percent of hobart's residents most of the businesses and facilities were located in the west side this eventually resulted in developments in the east services and amenities as they became a more self-contained community many ferry services were set up to take travelers across the derwent river while the tasman bridge was inaccessible a year after the incident a temporary bailly bridge was installed that allowed one lane of traffic in each direction to once again cross the river in october 1977 the tasman bridge was reopened the repair had cost 44 million dollars and featured some new additions including a new lane and improved safety measures such as a guidance system for passing ships in 1984 an extra bridge crossing was completed a few kilometers north of the tasman bridge and so hobart had not only minimized the chances of such a tragedy occurring again but also mitigated the resulting hardship of losing such an important bridge of course that doesn't bring back the 12 who lost their lives that night there is a plaque commemorating the tragedy on the bridge but perhaps a more striking reminder is the gap where one of the two destroyed supports once stood this single pier was not replaced as there was too much debris at the site its absence now serves as a permanent marker for the place where 12 people spent their last moments three one thousand tons fans and two supporting piers had completely collapsed and the adjoining piers had been damaged seven of the crew of the lake laguara and five travelers on the bridge lost their lives some drivers escaped and horrific death by a matter of inches within hours of the disaster army police and commercial

Channel: Qxir

Views: 1,020,728

Keywords: tasman bridge collapse, hobart, australia, bridge, destruction, cars, teetering, edge, cliff, fall, fail, structure, explained, irish

Id: uoVPdxj56lo

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 24 2022