One of the survivors of the Baltimore bridge disaster managed to escape because he was able to roll down his car’s manual window, a lawyer has said.
Julio Cervantes was on the 1.6-mile-long structure when it crashed into the Patapsco River after being struck by the Dali, a huge container ship that lost control and struck one of the bridge’s supports last month.
Mr Cervantes, along with another man, was rescued on the same day but six other road workers were killed.
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Bridge collapse: What happened?
Lawyer Chris Stewart said the workers were sitting in their vehicles during a break from repairing potholes on the bridge and had “zero warning” the Dali was heading towards them.
As his car plummeted into the water, Mr Cervantes survived after escaping through his vehicle’s manual window, Mr Stewart told a news conference, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Mr Cervantes’s wife previously told Sky News’s US partner network NBC News it “was a miracle he survived” given his inability to swim.
Despite being injured, Mr Cervantes hung on to debris in the water until he was rescued.
Mr Stewart said Mr Cervantes lost family members in the bridge collapse and eventually will share the “epic tale” of his survival.
Mr Cervantes was taken to hospital after he was rescued with a chest wound and released on the same day.
Of the six dead, four bodies have been recovered.
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Crew takes apart collapsed bridge
It emerged after the disaster that personnel on board the ship were able to alert the Maryland Department of Transportation that they had lost control of their vessel.
This meant local authorities could halt traffic on to the bridge before it was hit, with US President Joe Biden saying this “undoubtedly saved lives”.
The FBI has opened a criminal probe into the bridge collapse which will be at least partly focused on the Dali and if its crew left the port knowing it had serious problems with its systems.
Safety investigators have recovered the ship’s black box, which provides data including its position, speed, heading, radar, and bridge audio and radio communications.
The remains of the bridge still lie across the cargo ship, blocking the shipping lane.