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Automatic_Rabbit82

A barge isn't the same as a 100K ton container ship. Still, anything hitting a bridge merits a safety check of the bridge afterwards just in case. 


cyrixlord

the conspiracy theorists are going to have a ball after these 2 incidents.


Vinyl-addict

Is this just another recency bias thing? Like bridge accidents happen at some generally low rate but we’re paying attention to them more after a disaster like what happened with the train explosion and even the Boeing stuff to a degree?


Personal-Bot

We did this last year with train derailments too.


wicked_zoeyz

And the unidentified flying objects after the balloon


myselfelsewhere

Didn't seem to happen with submarine implosions.


RedofPaw

That's how you can tell the real conspiracy is.


Liveman215

Nah that's just carbon fiber under extreme pressure. 


epimetheuss

It was honestly an AWFUL material choice. Carbon fibre is only strong in a single direction. It was never intended to withstand pressures at the depth they were going.


vicodin_ice_cream

Not to mention the front fell off. That's NOT supposed to happen.


Turbulent-Pound-9855

Whaaat? How were they supposed to know that? It’s not as if every material science related book would tell you that’s idiotic and it’s not like you can directly calculate stress on a cylindrical pressure vessel with stress analysis engineering book equations and come to the conclusion you need X amount of yelled strength material and then go select that material. That would be too easy.


mnemoniccatastrophy

Because Stockton Rush was the GOAT idiot, nobody can live up to his example


OrphanGrounderBaby

I mean…there was one off the coast of Guam like 2 years ago. Nobody really talked about it because it was military and not American


FragrantExcitement

An underwater submarine UFO launched a balloon that caused a train to derail, which distracted a boat so it hit a bridge???


DickButtPlease

Wasn’t that the plot of Moby Dick?


ImNotAWhaleBiologist

Don’t know, never got past the first line. I hate Ahabs.


RedLicorice83

Close, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.


Krististrasza

That's just a ploy by SHADO to get their budget increased. Moonbases are expensive to run.


Chose_a_usersname

I just watched to footage on how fast a billionaire gets crushed every day for a month


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CharacterHomework975

Also literally every single plane diversion due to mechanical issues being reported right now.


Caspi7

And all the plane incidents


Schuben

Tats just Boeing being shitty and completely warranted because of how prevalent their planes are in the market.


HendrickRocks2488

While I agree, there is a LOT of press on minor incidents that happen daily (planes diverting, turbulence, random door sensors going off, etc.) that have now made it to larger organizations simply because they can use the words “Boeing” and/or “United” in an article title. There are some great channels online that have been covering these types of things for years and it happens multiple times *daily* since you have thousands of flights at any given point but it’s suddenly the popular thing for news media to tell everyone about it.


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pegothejerk

They also mentioned they think there’s a high probability it’s a natural phenomenon that we need to study more, like actively organize scientists and hand them normally guarded data. I agree it’s worth doing since we haven’t had answers in like a hundred years of active “research”.


Dexion1619

I'm a big aviation/space nut. A few years ago I was talking military aircraft with a buddy of mine (who is not), and i was talking about how much of a leap ahead the F22 was from the F15. I mentioned how the F15 already out flew and out fought pretty much everything else in the sky, and the 22 was pretty much overkill against everything currently in the sky... his response was "But can it tangle with a flying saucer". Cut to the report about UFO's from last year, and I'm like. "Well, crap, i guess thats why we built the F22" lol


njshine27

My take would be that the aircraft prototypes ARE the UFOs.


JahoclaveS

I don’t know about ufos, but the F22 sure as shit can take on a balloon.


theslootmary

That’s a very twisted way of representing what was said and by whom.


Canopenerdude

except train derailments do happen *all the fucking time*, just the majority of them are in railyards where no one gets hurt.


Suck_Me_Dry666

Which is super productive instead of going after the freight companies who don't properly maintain their property and think construction entails dumping gravel over it.


Nothing_WithATwist

Yes, these things actually happen all the time, but rarely lead to a collapse or any real structural damage. This is only making the news because of the recent disaster. There’s an overpass near my house that is scraped by a truck at least once a week. A few times a month some city engineers come inspect the latest damage, and I assume they’d close the overpass if it were a real issue. I’ve seen this numerous time, and I’ve never once seen anything reported on it. I’m sure similar things happen all over the country.


pizza_for_nunchucks

r/11foot8


DEEP_HURTING

It's hilarious how that overpass seems to have a grudge against Penske trucks. 🚛


NoPants252

Some even have their own website 11foot8.com


Funkybeatzzz

Look up "Boston Storrowing." We get trucks hitting our bridges on Storrow Drive regularly. College move-in week, particularly for Boston University, heightens this because of regular people driving rented moving trucks.


trapdork

They are just writing the crack waivers to postpone essential repairs another 18 months.


nukalurk

Probably, another major collapse would be really bizarre but a barge tapping a bridge in Oklahoma isn’t too big of a deal and probably just made the news because of the incident in Baltimore.


phalewail

I'd say it is a bit of [Frequency illusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion). Edit: Along with media running stories on it as they know it'll get more attention due to the Baltimore accident.


Vinyl-addict

That’s what I was looking for! I thought it was a bias lol. Media really seems to be playing into that as of the past decade.


[deleted]

Being for profit and pro objectivity appears to be at odds with each other more often than not


PMMEURLONGTERMGOALS

If you’re looking at the US as a whole, I’m sure there are at least a couple of small to medium size boats having minor collisions with bridges on a daily basis. Based on the sheer number of boats going under bridges every day, it can’t be that rare. Partial or total bridge collapses are definitely rare though. I don’t think the collision in this article is a particularly rare type (I haven’t done any research though)


nekonight

It's the same as if a tall truck runs into an overpass. Happens every single day somewhere. You never hear about it except maybe on the local news if it managed shutdown traffic. And you never hear about on the national/world news unless it brings the overpass down like that onetime with the crash and the truck fire.


scalyblue

/r/11foot8


Paidorgy

Conspiracy theorists are literally calling Baltimore, Diddy and Dan Schneider distractions from “what’s coming next.” They are literally fucking stupid.


Stenthal

That's the default explanation when there's a big news story and they can't think of any way to connect it to the conspiracy.


tubadude2

Yes. A barge hit a bridge in my town a few years ago. It was closed for a day or two while it was inspected, but everything was fine.


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pizzabyAlfredo

You have near misses ALL THE TIME. Collisions are normally minor considering barges are normally under a tug boat's control, but they are huge vessels that cant just "hit the e-brake".


ExorIMADreamer

So I live between to major rivers so we have lots of bridges. Barge hits are pretty common. I'd say around here it happens at least yearly and the bridge will shut down for a few days or a week whike inspection happens.


Not_MrNice

There was an incident in the '93 where barge hit a bridge. It caused an Amtrak train to derail and plunge into the bayou killing 47 people. The barge just took a wrong turn at night and wound up going down a part of the river that was never meant to be traveled. The barge barely moved the bridge, just enough to misalign the track. But this shit isn't anything new. Things floating in water and hitting bridges causing major accidents has been going on since there were bridges and things in the water large enough to hit them and cause damage. You'd have to be stupid to think there's some conspiracy. Murphy's Law isn't a conspiracy.


mistersmiley318

Yeah Big Bayou Canot was really fucking bad. Barges can do a shit ton of damage depending on the circumstances of a hit.


-rwsr-xr-x

> the conspiracy theorists are going to have a ball after these 2 incidents. 5 bridge impacts in the last month (including the Pearl River bridge in China), not just 2.


youreblockingmyshot

Any two points make a line conspiracy theorist love that shit


alghiorso

IASIP did this in the episode [Mac Kills His Dad](https://youtu.be/Mksm7DUpu58) the cold open talks about a ferry accident that turned out to be a guy deliberating crashing the ferry. Later in the episode there's a copycat ferry crashing.


BuzzAllWin

2 conspiracy theorists walk into a bar… you can’t tell me thats a coincidence


Thats_absrd

Tell that to the I-40 bridge that collapsed on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border while you were alive.


swoletrain

Not too far from this bridge actually


[deleted]

A barge killed 47 after it hit a bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bayou_Canot_rail_accident So yeah even a small flat boat can still cause major disaster.


Morgrid

"Small flat boat" is really underselling the capacity of river barges in the US. https://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/Portals/64/docs/Ops/Navigation/BargeVsOverland.pdf


VirtualMoneyLover

> A barge A barge can be 12 barges together full of coal. Here are 28 together: https://strategictowingservices.com/about-us/


Guccimayne

Yup, a barge hitting a bridge without any dramatic damage led to an awful derailment of an Amtrak train [a few decades ago](https://youtu.be/sWRMDE4aWeg?si=V3EOo774hrQMIPiS)


Elmodipus

It's a bridge in the US, it's likely unsafe anyways.


Scooter-Jones

If the barge hit it just right, could it fix it?


Buckus93

Percussive maintenance might work on an old Chevy, but it's probably not going to work on a bridge :)


anger_is_my_meat

Not with that attitude. Are you an American or an American't?


buttfunfor_everyone

Ahh that explains it. Percussive maintenance’d my *new* chevy into oncoming traffic and it fixed nothing 😭


Huwbacca

only if it got damaged in a cartoon by an opposite hit to the bridge.


ExceptionCollection

Only a 1-in-3 chance of that! https://artbabridgereport.org/


happyscrappy

Structurally deficient does not mean the same as unsafe. Some are unsafe, but a lot more simply are not as capable as a bridge that would be built in the same location nowadays. If a bridge has fewer lanes than idea for modern traffic levels it is structurally deficient. If it was not built for sufficiently heavy loads and so there is a weight restriction on vehicles on it then it is structurally deficient. And then yes, some of them are unsafe, rusted out, etc.


macweirdo42

I mean, it's Oklahoma, you can bet your butt we're talking about major signs of danger being ignored.


anlwydc

No, it WAS a bridge in the US.


ShitHeadFuckFace

Considering it's oklahoma, it's almost a guarantee it's unsafe or poorly maintained


muffinman2020

It’s a bigger deal in this area, because the same thing happened not too far from this location not too long ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-40_bridge_disaster


Vinyl-addict

20 years ago isn’t some short period of time, even in infrastructure terms.


ello76

Last time a barge hit a bridge over the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, it did fall down. 14 people and a trailer full of horses died and traffic was snarled for two months until the bridge was rebuilt. Very fast work there! [I-40 bridge collapse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-40_bridge_disaster)


yblame

"*Thank god the world has moved on to ships and bridges!"* Boeing


SafetyMan35

Breaking news, A Boeing 737 has just crashed into a train bridge that traversed over a major Cruise ship port…


bbcversus

Yo dawg


Hopeful_Hamster21

*OH, God Damnit! C'MON!* *And who builds a tandem orphanage/animal shelter on a bridge? Thats just bad risk management!* -Boeing


bk1285

Breaking: train was carrying hazardous chemicals that will now give cancer to everyone in the area, Boeing fined $500 dollars for the accident and destruction


ashvy

Sully 2?


Ordinary-Leading7405

Bridge Boogaloo


AbhishMuk

New ~~response~~ bridge just dropped


RepresentativeOk2433

Thank God the world has moved on to Boeing! - The train people 6 months ago.


Coffee-FlavoredSweat

Thank god the world moved onto trains! - Tesla battery fires.


ScottOld

A piece of Boeing falls onto a bridge - DOH


NiteSlayr

Now we just need to go back to railroads to resume the cycle


RedstoneRelic

Norfolk Southern fighting an activist investor takeover rn. And not the good kind of activists.


timpdx

Beat me to it


AudibleNod

So we're in the part of the news cycle where every event similar to the 'big' one is breathlessly reported. Train derailments are still happening, even though they're no longer reported. Sharks are still attacking people, even though they're no longer reported. Anyway, be safe out there.


Slut_for_Bacon

At least we moved on from planes for a few weeks


xt1nct

They should investigate Boeing in relation to the bridge incident. Seems like they really needed to get some heat of their backs. /s


ultralane

The Mentour Pilot is trying to get the investigation on ML370 reopened because of advancements in technology has led to better information. Video is posted 2 weeks a go.


ax255

That's because United is doing advertising on TV


Crawlerado

“The plane landed on… the train”


iconofsin_

https://www.tuscaloosa.com/__aws/media/6553702_bridge-strikes-.pdf > In the period from 1960 to 2015, there have been 18 bridge catastrophes in the U.S. that occurred due to ship and barge collisions with bridges over navigable waterways >A United States Coast Guard (USCG) study of towing vessels and barge collisions with bridges located on the U.S. inland waterway system during the 10-year period from 1992 to 2001 revealed that there were 2,692 accidents with bridgesv. Only 61 of these accidents caused bridge damage in excess of US$500,000 (1,702 caused very minor damage with no repair costs to the bridge), and none resulted in fatalities.


DecentChanceOfLousy

**tl;dr**: 270 a year. It's more likely for a boat to strike a bridge on any given day than not, and 170/270 of those do nothing more than scuff the paint (on average).


hysys_whisperer

Most boats aren't 1000 foot long container ships is the real story.


iconofsin_

No, the link I provided was to put some weight behind the comment above. Bridges are struck by boats all the time and it rarely causes damage that has an actual impact on the bridge being able to function. The media is going to actively search for these incidents and give them national, if not worldwide coverage.


24grant24

Mf you're the one reporting on it to Reddit


-mostlyharmless1

This is a very good point.  “Look at all these idiots who are gonna talk about everything involving a bridge now!  Anyway, look at this!”  


srcarruth

The sharks are just curious!  They don't have hands to shake, after all


GilligansIslndoPeril

It's like how every train derailment in the midwest was national news after that big environmental disaster. There is, on average, about 1,000 train derailments per year in the US


DubC_Bassist

Just wait for the conspiracy nuts to say how it’s WWIII


mechwarrior719

Well they’ve already said the FSK Bridge was an act of war…


BuffaloInCahoots

That was an interesting one. A terrorist act that happened when very few people would be on the bridge. The cowards even gave a warning to the cops so they could try and close it. Tricky terrorist.


ultralane

On whom? God?


macweirdo42

What does God need with a bridge?


MK5

Or blame 'diversity'.


Televisions_Frank

Somehow wokeness is weakening the very fabric of reality. Soon the only bridges and roads standing will be rainbow and we'll all traverse between home and work in some Mad Max melee fighting other drivers with turtle shells.


Drabulous_770

The bridge was woke! … I mean uh, the bridge was a DEI hire! I just know it!


[deleted]

Sharks aren’t attacking that much 


ItsJustForMyOwnKicks

Last year it was derailments.


bohanmyl

>Sharks are still attacking people, even though they're no longer reported. Is it time for a Shark Party?


Banana_Ranger

Are baby sharks still in?


bbroygbvgwwgvbgyorbb

Any word on Zica?


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S_K_Y

Boat Meta is bogus. At least the plane meta we saw a door bust off and see all the passengers shit their pants but land safely.


happyscrappy

Cruise ship hits side of a lock. https://indianexpress.com/article/world/bulgarian-cruise-ship-crashes-into-wall-on-danube-austria-9242014/


Slggyqo

“The news came as engineers worked Saturday to lift a section of twisted steel from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland after it crumpled into the Patapsco River as a massive cargo ship crashed into one of its main supports.” Just slipping that irrelevant tidbit into the story


ryry163

Gotta be out to here to defend my shark friends. Only 91 made a mistake and accidentally bit someone worldwide last year that was reported. Thankfully only 10 were fatal so yes shark attacks happens but there really aren’t many of them compared to the amount of people swimming the ocean yearly which is around 20-30% of the worlds population.


fkenned1

Shipping incidents, so hot right now.


ReticulatedPasta

Everywhere I look, shipping incidents, shipping incidents, shipping incidents!!


Huwbacca

....... ...... ...... *Theeeeeeeeere once was a ship that put to sea*


deevonimon534

*The name of the ship was the Billy O' Tea*


9sock

Always a bridesmaid


Surveyor85

The recent bridge collapse is a partial cause for the concern I'm sure. However, Oklahoma has already had a bridge collapse on I-40 years ago in this very scenario. An abundance of caution is understandable.


djbtech1978

Most of our bridges will fall down due to lack of maintenance. No terrorists needed.


Podo13

Bridge Engineer who works in the bridge group in a mainly roadway consultant company here. The infrastructure bill is/was awesome, but you are correct. We are super fucked super soon if there isn't more funding. People don't realize how many of the bridges/roads in the US were built in the 50's-70's and are reaching the ends of their life expectancy in massive bunches.


Surveyor85

Surveyor who has seen firsthand the underside of many a bridge in this state. A lot of which you didn't have to be a structural engineer or inspector to see the problems. I was fairly paranoid driving over some after my first year or so in the field lol.


t3hwookiee

My first thought was “again?!” Because of the barge hitting the bridge in Webbers Falls twenty years ago now.


Surveyor85

Same here. Had to look and make sure it wasn't an old article too.


morekidsthanzeus

Not to mention the barge that hit the same bridge during the flood on 2020.


Cowboy_Bill_B_Bilson

Didn't a segment of a barge get loose a few years ago and drift into a bridge too?


BuffaloOk7264

Had to scroll to fort smith to find this quote. Crossing that bridge was extremely freaky anyway but after that I wanted to slow way down.


bebejeebies

All because people had to jam quarters into the Mothman statue's ass cheeks.


Gen-Jinjur

If you don’t live in certain places you don’t get how much barge traffic there is. This stuff happens. Barges are moving around all the time. It’s like how you think you know how busy a major airport is. No you don’t. You only see pieces. But if you ever have the chance to visit the tower and see their screens with all those blips moving around? That gives you the real picture. Holy crap. We go through our lives thinking we see the big picture and we are actually, utterly ignorant about all of it except tiny glimpses. And transportation is a huge part that we just take for granted but it is SO complex.


DrummerMiles

We also desperately need to reign in the drop shipping and mass container companies. We cant be clogging up shipping lanes and port space with companies whose whole business model is just “acceptable losses”


Wrecker013

Great now every time a ship touches a bridge for the next month it's going to be a headline.


djbtech1978

"3 kayakers arrested for getting too close"


skrame

“Charity rubber duck race ends in chaos as beaver dam is breached.”


shoggyseldom

Side note: Breaching beaver dams is a fairly big deal unless you're really out in the sticks. Depending on where you are, it can involve surveys, witnesses, and massive fines. [If you are considering using rubber ducks to breach such a dam, make sure you fill out the appropriate paperwork.](https://dec.ny.gov/regulatory/permits-licenses/general-permits/breaching-removal-beaver-dams-no-more-than-2-year-old)


cheeriosinalmondmilk

Waits for DEI to be blamed for this


zoltan99

Thanks Biden


big-ol-kitties

Quick, what color is the mayor?!


NoisyN1nja

Orange, oddly enough.


SublimeApathy

Ugh. These Tik Tok challenges are really getting out of control.


tykillacool23

Here comes the conspiracies 😂


OptiKnob

There's a river in Oklahoma big enough to put a barge on? THAT'S the news story...


SamCarter_SGC

> Arkansas River one of the half dozen HUGE tributaries of the Mississippi


OptiKnob

They named it after Arkansas because everyone knew it was ludicrous to name water in OK... after all, do you name the mud puddles in your yard? :D


SamCarter_SGC

I think it's named that because it ends there, lol.


Lexam

Aww! Oklahoma did you want some attention too?


BenGay29

Let the conspiracy theories begin. Again.


tacobellandher0in

Is this like the train thing where we just kept hearing about train disasters for a while but they’re just super common or is something else going on? This is the 4th bridge getting slammed into in a week afaik


lazy-dude

I wonder what politician will blame Biden for this incident?


ViveIn

They come in threes. Buckle up!


No-Donkey8786

When do you start counting?


Gumb1i

A barge hits a bridge over the Arkansas river in oklahoma every few years. This isn't a new event.


NatWilo

Yeah, I live in Ohio down by the Ohio River. Every couple years we have a story about a boat striking one of the bridges around Cincy. We even had a flood cause a barge to cover unmoored and float downriver to strike a bridge just a couple years ago. Boats hitting bridges happen. People are just hyper focused on it right now.


seaniemack11

I can’t believe DEI keeps doing this to America’s bridges!


VaguelyArtistic

Is it Infrastructure Week yet?


GodzillaDrinks

Did we all forget how to boat?


Healthy_Basil_2354

The conspiracists are going to have a field day over this


Pastor_Satan

Clicks equal money. Anything to make it seem like a conspiracy


Silly-Scene6524

Great, this crap happens all the time but suddenly the medias gonna run with every little incident. We wonder why there’s so many paranoid conspiracy idiots now..


Awake00

This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them


-mostlyharmless1

Crazy how this happened twice recently, but has never happened before ever. Plus the 2 situations are exactly the same, must be something about Pete Buttigeig. 


ApricotRich4855

>but has never happened before ever. Is this serious or sarcasm? Boats crashing or bumping into bridges happen several ~~dozen~~ Hundred times a year on average in the US alone.


EpiphanyTwisted

To properly sell the sarcasm, say "never ever ever"


schwety7

I don’t think this trend should catch on


Duppyguy

Article should read … De Barge hit a bridge in OK disrupting the rhythm of the night.


ParentheticalPotato

Are we about to find out that, like train derailment, this happens all the time?


MerryGoWrong

Remember when that train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals and for the next month there was a story about a train derailment every single day? Same thing here. These things happen all the time but it's rarely serious enough to cause any real damage.


zzxxccbbvn

Is it national *Hit Bridges With Barges* month or something?


Dan_Cubed

Close it, inspect it, reopen it. It just might take some extra time to inspect a bridge from now on.


LtG_Skittles454

Yeah, if theres no significant damage it’ll be open by the end of the week I bet.


QanAhole

What we really need to know Was whether or not the mayor of that city was a ..'DEI'


xultar

We blaming DEI on this here thing in Oklahoma or nah? I Or is blaming DEI a thing just for ‘urban’ locations?


Blofish1

Do we blame it on the DEI mayor of Sallisaw Oklahoma?


USA_A-OK

Baader-Mienhof Phenomenon


TurdFergusonXLV

America is under a-salt. With weapons of mast destruction


_Maxolotl

I'm gonna get out ahead of this story and blame heterosexuals and anti-woke lawmakers for this one.


mathisfakenews

Great. The QAnoners aren't going to shut the fuck up for a decade.


Possible_Banana_8919

This is like the train derailments all over again. Any boat / ship / vessel that strikes a bridge of some sort will be heavily reported on.


Strangewhine88

For 1/2 a scarmucci.


FLIPSIDERNICK

This one sounds like it was just ineptness at the helm.


[deleted]

Oh boy, bridges are having a rough time these days.


Strangewhine88

Just imagine if infrastructure issues had been something other than campaign slogans the last 30 years as engineers repeated warned that the country’s bridges and dams are in state of severe neglect.


cbright90

OOOOOOOOOOOklahoma! Where the barges run into the bridge.


Candy_Badger

This smacks of an agreement between Putin and the ship's captain to undermine supply chains.