Some insight into what happened in the minutes before the Key Bridge collapsed. https://x.com/cfishman/status/1772966665531084836?s=20
(((Charles Fishman))) 💧 (@cfishman) on X

Again, a moment to pause & appreciate the cool professionalism of those in & around the Key Bridge at 1:24 am Tuesday. Ship’s pilot radios in that ship has lost steerage & will hit bridge. Someone (maritime control?) transmits urgent alert to Maryland/Balt police dispatch… —>

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@JamesWNeal

The obfuscation of responsibility, ownership, & liability in shipping is alarming.

The airline industry is a close 2nd.

Imagine operating a truck like this:

Cargo owned by 1 entity. Truck owned by a 2nd, leased to a 3rd, speedometer & steering wheel leased & maintained by a 4th, truck driver subcontracted at bottom dollar prices from a 5th, & each element insured separately, each registered & regulated in a different country.

The Kidd bridge lawsuits will last decades.

@Npars01 @JamesWNeal That "truck operating" scenario is EXACTLY how the British passenger rail network operates 500 tonne trains with 300 passengers routinely running at 125mph.

Nationalize the railways!

(It's also how most airlines handle capacity shortfalls via wet leasing.)

@cstross Not quite: the underlying infrastructure is all Network Rail and anyone using it has to play by their rules, with pretty much unlimited penalties for breaking them. (Unlike those malware-infected Polish locomotives that we heard about recently: /that/ company needs to be taken away from its owners and the culprits permanently banned.) UK Rail is effectively nationalised and getting closer to the target.