Bridge collapse

Missing workers from bridge collapse presumed dead, company says

The bodies of the six workers have not yet been recovered.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

A senior executive of the company that employed the construction workers said Tuesday that six of the company’s workers are presumed to be dead and one worker was hospitalized after the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, said the crew was working in the middle of the bridge’s span when the crash happened and crumbled the bridge.

The bodies of the workers have not yet been recovered, but they are presumed to have died given the water’s depth and the amount of time that has passed since the crash, he said.

A fellow construction company employee says he was told his missing co-workers were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks when the Baltimore bridge collapsed early Tuesday after being struck by a container ship.

Brawner Builders employee Jesus Campos says he learned about the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster from a co-worker and immediately worried about colleagues whom he knew were working on the bridge over the Patapsco River.

“When he told me that, they came to mind and I was praying to God that nothing had happened to them,” Campos said Tuesday, speaking in Spanish.

“It is so hard for me to describe. I know that a month ago I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass. Imagine knowing that it is falling. It is so hard, one would not know what to do,” Campos said.