‘We were that close’; Uber driver says she was stopped before driving onto doomed Baltimore bridge

BALTIMORE (Gray News) – An Uber driver said officers stopped her from driving across the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning just before it collapsed.

Officials credited a mayday call from the wayward cargo ship Dali and the quick response of law enforcement who stopped traffic to the bridge for saving lives.

“(I) was approaching the bridge and got stopped by the police right at the front line and had no idea what was transpiring,” Gayle Fairman said.

“In all honesty, if my passenger wasn’t a little bit late coming out to the car and getting into it, we probably very well could have been on the bridge when it collapsed. We were that close. This will be one of those unfortunate moments of memories,” she said.

Still, workers who were on the bridge at the time of catastrophe died. Two bodies have been recovered, and four more are missing.

The wreckage of the bridge has blocked the port of Baltimore, so an effort is getting underway to clear the bridge remnants and thereby recover the remains of those who were caught on the bridge when it collapsed.

“You know, you don’t want to see anything like this happen ever, but it’s an unfortunate tragedy,” Fairman said.