BALTIMORE – Julio Cervantes Suarez endured the unthinkable when one Cargo ship over 100,000 tons collided with the bridge he was working on, collapsing the critical structure and sending him tumbling into the dark, unforgiving waters below.
Cervantes Suarez, 37 years old, was one of the Seven construction workers who was repairing holes in the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed into the Patapsco River in the early morning hours of March 26. they were all Latin, included his nephew, brother-in-law and friends he had known for years. They were all off duty, some in their cars and others in construction vehicleswhen the bridge collapsed.
Cervantes Suarez, who spoke exclusively to NBC News for the first time since the bridge collapse, said he watched his family and friends disappear into the river one by one, knowing he would be next. His nephew, Carlos Daniel Hernández, whom he considered a son, was the first to fall.
In what he thought were his final moments, he turned to God.
“I thanked God for the family he gave me. I asked him to take care of my wife and children. And I asked for forgiveness for everything I did,” Cervantes Suarez said in Spanish, his voice breaking.
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Cervantes Suarez, the only person to survive the fall into the water, was in his truck when the bridge collapsed.
After his truck crashed into the river, Cervantes Suarez said the water “came up to my neck” and he was unable to open the doors to escape.
He manually rolled down the vehicle’s window to get out, gulping down water as his truck became completely flooded and sank.
“That’s when I realized what happened. I looked at the bridge and it was no longer there,” said Cervantes Suarez.
He saw his companions fall “and how the water covered them,” he said.
“I started calling each of them by name,” he said.
“But no one answered me,” he said.
There was only silence, darkness and cold.
Cervantes Suarez, who does not know how to swim, managed to climb onto a piece of floating concrete from the wreckage, where he waited until he was rescued. He was taken to hospital with a chest wound and released the same day. Another surviving worker rescued at the scene was in good condition and refused treatment.
Cervantes Suarez still feels physical pain in his chest, knee and left foot. The emotional impact is something that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
“I relive it all the time, in the minutes before the fall and when I’m falling,” he said.
He is haunted by the fact that he told his nephew to go to the car and rest.
“If I had told him to come with me, maybe it would have been different. Maybe he was here with us,” he said.
Cervantes Suarez is in therapy and “it helped me, but sometimes I go back to day one,” he said.
He said justice for him would be for everyone responsible “to pay for the damage they caused. Because I know that money won’t buy a hug from a father or a son.”
He said he sees the children of his brother-in-law, Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, “and I see how much they miss their father.” He sees how much his sister-in-law misses her husband.
Cervantes Suarez said the Dali freighter “destroyed six families.”
The National Transportation Safety Board determined in a preliminary report It was reported in May that the 947-foot-long Singapore-flagged cargo ship was leaving the Port of Baltimore when it lost power and propulsion before hitting the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
O The FBI is also investigating the events that led to the accident and whether the cargo ship’s crew knew that the ship had potential mechanical problems that would make transit in the port unsafe.
Cervantes Suarez and the families of several workers killed in the bridge collapse intend to take legal action against the companies involved in the freighter.
“Everyone involved with this boat is responsible for the destruction of the lives of these eight families,” said L. Chris Stewart, an attorney representing Cervantes Suarez and the families of some of the workers who died. “The boat was not seaworthy.”
“It’s an American tragedy,” he said.
“This will never end and he still has a family to take care of and now a bunch of other people from other families that he also has to take care of,” said Justin Miller, an attorney who also represents Cervantes Suarez and others. families.
In the days following the bridge collapse, the ship’s Singapore-based owner and manager asked a Maryland court to limit its monetary liability for the collapse to $43.67 million.
The city of Baltimore said in a late April court filing against the cargo ship’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., that “their negligence caused them to destroy the Key Bridge and, alone, close the port. of Baltimore, a source of jobs, municipal revenue, and a source of great pride for the city of Baltimore and its residents.
“None of this should have happened. Reports indicated that even before leaving port, alarms sounded showing inconsistent power supply on the Dali. The Dali left the port anyway, despite its clearly inaccessible condition,” the city said in the document.
In response to the limited liability claim from the ship’s owner and operator, the city said the incident was “caused by the unsafety of the Dali and the negligence of the ship’s crew and shore management” and that therefore the limitation requests of responsibility should be denied.
Cervantes Suarez said he hopes people remember those who died.
“I knew them all, they were families. They were good people, good workers and had good values,” he said.
Cervantes Suarez said he doesn’t know why he survived the bridge collapse.
“I think maybe there’s still a goal for me,” he said.
Tom Llamas and Daniella Silva reported from Baltimore and Nicole Acevedo reported from New York City.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
