Just A Car Guy: in 1975, a moron was allowed to pilot a ore carrier down a river, and under a bridge, he chose to shoot the narrows, and not the main span, and took out a section of the bridge at 9:27 pm, 4 cars went over the edge, 5 people died, and the commute went from 3 minutes to 90 minutes

Monday, May 20, 2019

in 1975, a moron was allowed to pilot a ore carrier down a river, and under a bridge, he chose to shoot the narrows, and not the main span, and took out a section of the bridge at 9:27 pm, 4 cars went over the edge, 5 people died, and the commute went from 3 minutes to 90 minutes

On Sunday, 5 January 1975 at 9.27 p.m. the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra collided with the Tasman Bridge. Two piers collapsed along with 127 metres of bridge decking. Four cars ran over the gap which fell 150ft into the Derwent River. Five occupants died while several others managed to escape from two vehicles which teetered on the edge of the gap. Seven crewmen from the Lake Illawarra also lost their lives.

The ship was off course as it neared the bridge, partly due to the strong tidal current but also because of inattention by the ship's master, Captain Boleslaw Pelc. Initially approaching the bridge at eight knots, Pelc slowed the ship to a 'safe' speed. Although the Lake Illawarra was capable of passing through the bridge's central navigation span, the captain attempted to pass through one of the eastern spans.

The collapse of Tasman Bridge isolated two sides of the city which had heavily relied upon it for most daily activities. 30% of Hobart's residents lived on the eastern shore and were effectively isolated. The day after the incident, as some 30,000 residents set out for work, they found that the former three-minute commute over the bridge had turned into a ninety-minute trip.

the car on the left (above images), Frank Manley's 1974 Holden Monaro GTS, is still in near mint condition, and he takes it out of the garage for events and shows.

As we approached, it was a foggy night...there was no lights on the bridge at the time. We just thought there was an accident. We slowed down to about 40 km/h and I'm peering out the window, desperately looking to see the car...what was happening on the bridge. We couldn't see anything but we kept on travelling. The next thing, I said to Frank, "The bridge is gone!" And he just applied the brakes and we just sat there swinging. As we sat there, we couldn’t see anything in the water. All we could see was a big whirlpool of water and apparently the boat was sinking. So with that, we undid the car door and I hopped out. - Sylvia Manley

[Sylvia] said “The white line, the white line’s gone. Stop!" I just hit the brakes and I said “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t stop.” And next thing we just hung off the gap...when I swung the door open, I could see, more or less, see the water...and I just swung meself towards the back of the car and grabbed the headrest like that to pull myself around. There's a big automatic transmission pan underneath [the car] - that's what it balanced on. - Frank Manley

The other car contained Murray and Helen Ling, with their two children. As they were crossing the bridge, they witnessed two cars seemingly disappear, so he slammed on the brakes, stopping mere inches from the end of the bridge. A car travelling behind didn’t react so fast, causing the EK Holden to teeter on the edge of the bridge alongside the Monaro. Murray got his family out of the car and tried desperately to stop other cars on the bridge from driving straight off the edge, to almost no avail.

Horrified, he witnessed two cars plummet off the edge of the bridge after attempting to wave them down. Fortunately, he did stop a bus load full of people, which slammed into the side of the bridge as it skidded along the bridge.