An example of the type of publicity the general public gets presented to them:
PS> At least they got one thing right:
A more informed article in another local publication:
ombugge,
From the second article. Out of the mouths of babes………
“ These near misses, along with others here and around the country, raise questions about whether enough safety precautions are in place and if officials could do more to protect bridges with collapse-prone designs from the possibility of a dangerous allision with skyscraper-sized ships.”
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It will be a sequel of Hebei Spirit They are already bulding up the hype. Call for retired or “have beens” who regurgitate dubious opinions and this is where it is heading.
Call some all knowing ladies who spread hear say and other bs. It is going to get really ugly. They smell blood and will go for it. And it goes parallel with the push re. J.A. issues and " more merchant ships " under US flag.
That is my guess. Yes indeed USCG is stretched thin . We all know it after El Faro drama. They were looking the other way not to see what would result in the detention of any other foreign flagged vessel in such condition.
The authors have forgotten or were simply too lazy to check out the latest Flag performance report . To mention Liberia as a bad guy is a joke.
Pathetic.
Suspect next claim will be from Toi Toi owners.
Cannot expect too much accuracy on Maritime matters from a Health Reporter.
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I suspect that most people neither know nor care about the flag or anything else related to shipping.
A while back there was book about shipping “Ninety Percent of everything”. Subtitle: “Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, And Food on Your Plate”.
Key word there is “Invisible”
Invisible until a bridge falls over, THEN people get interested for a time.
Kind of like how they couldn’t care less if a cargo airplane crashes unless it lands on their house 
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How large of part of the general public is gong to do deep dive into flag state, SOLAS or PSC and so forth? Very few.
For most people, once they have a vague idea of how such a thing could happen they’re going to get on with something else.
Not to be pedantic, but the Dali was not “flying” under any flag, unless she had become airborne at some point.
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Flags fly not the ship. One flies a kite ( we don’t want the child flying) . It is also in common usage in New Zealand for rigging a spinnaker.
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Flags may be “flown” or “worn”. In British English, however, ships as well as personel may indeed fly ensigns, flags and burgees, as evidenced by the quote below. I concede, that even this will not make the ship take off and fly 
The Queen’s Regulations for the Royal Navy
CHAPTER 91 STANDARDS, FLAGS AND COLOUR
[…]
Boats Under Sail. MOD owned yachts wearing the White Ensign are not to fly any burgee. Yachts flying the Blue Ensign may fly the burgee of the Royal Naval Sailing Association but no other.
[…]
The Chief of the Defence Staff is authorised, when embarked in a boat to fly a distinguishing flag.
[…]
Considering how often they’ll be watching a ship go under the Bay Bridge while they are on it, I am betting this will be of interest to everyone around here for some time to come.
Well sure, in the same way most of us were interested in infectiousness disease epidemiology during the pandemic.
For the most of us it was more a matter of just learning what we needed to get by. Not many can truly say they gained any deep expertise
I wonder whether the author is aware of Theodore Sturgeon. “Ninety percent of everything is crud.”
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I think that’s a valid assumption. After events affecting the SF Bay bridge, crossing it as a motorist came with a reminder that the odds of surviving a collapse, whether caused by an earthquake or allision or the possibility that it’s past its expiration date, are practically nil.
Many people don’t need knowledge of previous accidents to fear crossing bridges and their fear rises to the level of a phobia. The condition even has its very own medical term: Gephyrophobia
I expect some of the lawsuits being filed in the Dali case will be on behalf of commuters claiming emotional distress.
Not really relevant to the author, given the context in each case.
But Sturgeon’s Law is relevant to this thread wrt people with expertise in specific areas finding errors in newspaper articles and the like.
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Of course it’s going to be of interest. Like the Chicago fire or the San Francisco earthquake still are today.
But in the case of Baltimore, few people are looking for deep technical information about shipping.
Most people are more interested in how these events effect their daily lives. Once they have general understanding of how such a thing could have occurred and a general impression something is being done to prevent another incident most people will move on as far as seeking more information on those topics.
My post was not about people’s deep interest in on the technical aspects of the bridge collapse and yes, the general public’s interest is going to fade over time unless they’re directly affected.
My point was that those commuters who use it are likely to be reminded of the event for some time as they drive over its replacement. That’s based on my personal experience with the SF Bay bridge but as captain spowiednick is fond of saying, I could be wrong of course.
There are services to drive you over the Bay Bridge and I know someone I have to go and fetch because they can’t drive across it and this was BEFORE. I am not sure they will even ride across it now!
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