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Readers react to close call at Skyway

When a ship was grounded to avoid hitting the Sunshine Skyway Wednesday, we asked for reaction from readers who remembered the 1980 disaster. 

By Times Staff
Published March 29, 2007

A 378-foot freighter power failed Wednesday while it was roughly 2,000 yards from the Skyway, where 35 people died in 1980 after a 608-foot ship rammed it. Here are reaction from reades who recalled that day in 1980:

From Jay Schwersenska of Valrico: "When I heard the news this morning that a ship had lost power and was in danger of hitting the Skyway bridge I immediately flashed back to 1980.  I was working at Sears in the University Mall and all the patrons and employees were in the television department watching the breaking news and realizing that this disaster was in our own back yard.  I'll never forget the images of the Greyhound bus and the truck and the cars as they unknowingly drove over the edge and fell to the water below, some of them bouncing off the deck of the ship on the way down. 

"When I came back to present day, I was hoping that we had learned our lessons from that earlier disaster.  I saw that the police had stopped traffic on the skyway so we would not repeat the loss of life, and I read that the harbor pilot guided the ship into a sandbar to avoid hitting the bridge.   Even though the bunkers were designed to protect the bridge supports, I'm glad we didn't have to put them to the test.  Hats off to the police, the harbor pilot, the tugboat captains, and the media for all their efforts to keep the public safe and informed."  

From Holly Hail: "My girlfriend and I were scheduled to leave for Pomampo Beach on that same morning, yet a last minute job came up for me, so we had to delay our trip, thankfully, by one day!  It was also Mother's Day weekend.

"I will never forget Dan Rather, from the CBS Evening news, reporting  this story! To think that my girlfriend and I were going to be on that bridge, at that same time...The next day, we had to re-routing our drive due to the bridge being shut down. Horrible day, grateful for not traveling that morning.  God bless the families that lost their loved ones!"

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Carol Everette: "I was a college sophomore at Howard University in Washington, DC and was coming home for summer break.  When I arrived at Tampa Airport I heard people talking about a bridge that had gotten hit by a ship and how people had unknowingly driven off the bridge.  I thought they were talking about some movie that had been on television the night before.
 
"The day was so pretty by the time I arrived in Tampa that I had no idea that there had even been a storm.
 
"It wasn't until after my parents had collected me and my luggage that I realized the people weren't talking about a tv program.  We lived in St. Pete and were on the Howard Frankland bridge when my parents cleared things up."  
 
***

From Mike Garrett in Anderson, S.C.: "I absolutely remember when the freighter hit the Skyway in 1980. I was in middle school at Tarpon Springs Middle School when it happened and my mother used to work in Sarasota so we used to travel over the Skyway every day and I was fascinated with the bridge so I was captivated by the tragedy unfolding that day.

"When I saw the headline on sptimes.com, I immediately thought of that and went to the wtsp.com Skyway traffic cam to get a glimpse of the freighter, and sure enough, I could see it vividly. I'm just happy that the tragedy was not repeated."

[Last modified March 29, 2007, 14:17:01]