Two of the victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse on Tuesday were recovered from a submerged red pickup truck, authorities said during a news conference on Wednesday.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was struck by the container ship Dali in the early morning hours on Tuesday while construction workers were doing overnight work on the bridge.
Shortly after the collapse, two people were rescued from the water. Six people who were missing were presumed dead by late Tuesday evening, with search and rescue operations transitioning into a recovery operation.
The bodies of two of the missing people were recovered on Wednesday morning after divers found a red pickup truck submerged about 25 feet underwater in the Patapsco River near the middle section of the bridge, police said during a press conference Wednesday.
“Divers recovered two victims of this tragedy trapped within the vehicle,” Col. Roland Butler of the Maryland State Police said.
The victims were identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes of Baltimore and 26-year-old Dorlian Castillo Cabrera of Dundalk, Maryland.
Police said responders were now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. He said divers are no longer able to access the area where they believe more vehicles and victims may be because of the surrounding structures and debris.
“Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down,” Butler said.
The bodies of four men who are presumed dead remain missing.
Seven of the eight men who were working on the bridge at the time of the collapse were employees of Brawner Builders. The company said Tuesday only one of their employees survived, while the six others were presumed dead.
Jesus Campos, a coworker of the men, told media outlets all six of them were migrants from Mexico and Central America and that they had spouses and children.
“We’re low-income families,” Campos told The New York Times. “Our relatives are waiting for our help back in our home countries.”
