Two bodies found in pickup truck deep underwater after Baltimore bridge collapse

Divers have discovered the remains of two construction workers found in a red pickup truck that plunged into Baltimore’s harbour after a bridge collapsed.

The bodies were pulled from the freezing Patapsco River on Wednesday morning, a day after the Dali container ship lost power and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, knocking most of it into the water.

They were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, from Guatemala, and discovered in the pickup around 25 feet of water on Wednesday.

Four other construction workers are unaccounted for and presumed dead, the Coast Guard said. They were repairing potholes on the bridge when it collapsed at 1.30am on Tuesday.

Officials announced on Wednesday night they were suspending their recovery operation because of the increasingly treacherous conditions in the water.

“Because of the superstructure surrounding what we believe were the vehicles and the amount of concrete and debris, divers are no longer able to safely navigate and operate around that,” said Col Roland Butler, the superintendent of Maryland State Police.

“We have exhausted all search efforts.”

Three of the eight workers on the bridge at the time of the incident were Mexican, with the remainder from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Two were found alive on Tuesday.

The tragedy led Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, to criticise US over its treatment of migrant workers.

Mr Lopez Obrador said that “insensitive, irresponsible” politicians did not understand the contribution of migrants in the US, including the workers who were plunged into the freezing Patapsco River when the Dali container ship destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

He added: “This demonstrates that migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight, and for this reason they do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States.”

The president has become a vocal critic of the US government in recent months, accusing the Biden administration of expecting Mexico to solve problems with illegal migration and cartels. He said last week he will prioritise domestic concerns over “act[ing] as policemen for any foreign government”, adding: “Mexico First. Our home comes first.”

Mexico’s foreign affairs ministry said the two missing Mexican workers are from the states of Veracruz and Michoacán. One of the other missing workers was named as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 39, who came to the US illegally from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras.

He worked at Brawner Builders, the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge when it collapsed, with Miguel Luna from El Salvador, who is also missing. The search continued yesterday as the US government assessed the impact of the bridge collapse on the economy and the cost of the repairs.

Pete Buttigieg, the US Transport Secretary, said the collapse of the bridge would directly impact 8,000 workers at the Port of Baltimore, which is one of the largest ports on the East Coast and handles around one million containers each year. “It’s difficult to overstate the impact of this collision,” he said. “A hundred thousand tons, all going into this pier all at once.”

Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, said that the US would use a supply chain task force established during the Covid-19 pandemic to prevent shortages caused by the port closure. “We’re monitoring this very closely and prepared to take any steps that can be helpful,” she said, adding “there will be insurance payments in part to cover this” but the federal government would make funds available immediately to rebuild the bridge as fast as possible.

The majority of the cargo bound for Baltimore has been diverted to Virginia or New York as officials try to avoid an increase in domestic prices as a result of the incident.

The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the causes of the crash, which started when the Dali lost power shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore.

Investigators boarded the ship on Wednesday, where the crew remained after the disaster, and collected its black box to be examined for evidence.

One avenue of inquiry is understood to be focusing on whether the ship was filled with contaminated fuel, which disrupted the power supply.

Vice Adml Peter Gautier, of the US Coast Guard, said that 56 of the ship’s 4,700 containers contain hazardous materials, but that there is no threat to the public.

The ship, which was just 30 minutes into a 27-day voyage, is also still carrying 1.5 million gallons of fuel and lubricant oil.