Six construction workers are thought to have perished after the Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship, smashed into a key support column and sent the bridge and the roadway workers on it into the Patapsco River.
The night shift crew began working in the evening March 25, filling potholes on Interstate 695. After a mayday from the ship early the next morning, police officers successfully halted car traffic onto the bridge moments before it fell, but warnings didn’t make it to most of the workers in time. A seventh member of the Brawner Builders crew was rescued and treated at a hospital. A bridge inspector also survived.
Baltimore’s Latino community is grieving the six lives lost as it rallies around the families. For some, the men’s deaths symbolize the sacrifices many Latin American immigrants make when they work dangerous jobs in the United States to improve their families’ futures.
The men who died came from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The youngest were in their 20s, while the eldest was a 49-year-old grandfather.
Miguel Luna was from the town of California in El Salvador, immigrated to the United States about 19 years ago,
Alejandro “Alex” Hernandez Fuentes, 35, was the foreman of the crew working on the bridge that night.
Maynor Yessir Suazo Sandoval, 38, grew up in Azacualpa, Honduras. He immigrated to the United States more than 17 years ago.
Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, was born in Guatemala. Cabrera lived in the Baltimore area.
Jose Mynor Lopez, in his 30s, was described as a loving family man and an attentive father, emigrated to the United States 19 years ago from Guatemala.
Carlos Hernandez has also been identified as one of the victims who died on the bridge.
The Mexican state of Michoacán told CNN that the three Mexican men were related to one another.