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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nOn the bridge, Lerro considered his options. Visibility was terrible. There was also a ship leaving the bay approaching. Unable to track the approaching ship Pure Oil, the pilot judged it too risky to turn out of the shipping channel \u2014 what if he turned into the path of the oncoming ship? If he tried to bring the Summit Venture to a halt, the winds could cause the freighter to lose control and fling it into the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best course, Lerro decided, was to get the Summit Venture safely between the bridge\u2019s pillars. But he misjudged the winds, unaware that a squall had changed the direction of the wind, pushing the freighter out of the channel and off-course. The vessel was also empty, riding high on the waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A minute before impact, the skies cleared just enough for Lerro to see the Sunshine Skyway before him. Despite a flurry of last-second maneuvers, it was too late. At 7:33 a.m., the bow of the Summit Venture struck bridge pier 2S. The pier came down, and so did Interstate 275 above it during rush hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lerro radioed the Coast Guard for help:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGet emergency . . . all the emergency equipment out to the Skyway Bridge. Vessel has just hit the Skyway Bridge. The Skyway Bridge is down! Get all emergency equipment out to the Skyway Bridge. The Skyway Bridge is down. This is Mayday. Emergency situation. (Nearly screaming) Stop the traffic on that Skyway Bridge!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A state inquiry later cleared Lerro of negligence. The Coast Guard found that his decision to sail in zero visibility contributed to the crash. Yet many factors were found to be beyond the pilot\u2019s control: The storm that blinded the ship was not forecast; Lerro had no idea the oncoming tanker had anchored and was no longer a threat; a passing pilot never warned Lerro about the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Sunshine Skyway bridge \u2014 officially the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, named after the former governor and U.S. senator \u2014 opened on April 20, 1987.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ships still pass beneath the bridge to enter Tampa Bay and reach Port Tampa Bay, but this Skyway is designed specifically to avoid the calamity that took place 38 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Summit Venture later changed hands several times. It sank as the Jian Mao 9 off the coast of Vietnam in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only one person survived the fall: Wesley MacIntire, 56. The Gulfport man\u2019s blue Ford Courier pickup truck fell onto the ship before it entered the water, allowing him to escape his vehicle and swim to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we never forget the names of the 35 victims of the 1980 Sunshine Skyway Bridge Disaster:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michael Curtin, 43, of Apollo Beach<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duane Adderly, 21, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louis Lucas Jr., 62, of Dolomite, Ala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yvonne Johnson, 22, of Perrine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manesha McGarrah, 7 months, of Tallahassee<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wanda McGarrah, 24, of Tallahassee<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharon Dixon, 21, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Myrtle Brown, 58, of St. Johns, Newfoundland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willis Brown, 57, of St. Johns, Newfoundland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aubrey Hudson, 62, of St. Johns, Newfoundland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phyllis Hudson, 58, of St. Johns, Newfoundland<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Carlson, 47, of Pinellas Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doris Carlson, 42, of Pinellas Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tawana McClendon, 20, of Palmetto<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Collins, 40, of Tampa<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leslie Coleman Jr., 52, of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Pryor, 42, of Seminole<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Callaway Jr., 19, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Horace Lemmons, 47, of Kings Mountain, N.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gerda Hedquist, 92, of Charlotte Harbor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louise Johnson, 59, of Cataula, Ga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Melborne Russell, 38, of Chicago, Iill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Harding, 63, of Glens Falls, N.Y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alphonso Blidge, 22, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marguerite Mathison, 82, of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sandra Davis, 34, of Boardman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hildred Dietch, 73, of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harry Dietch, 68, of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lillian Loucks, 69, of Winnipeg, Manitoba<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ann Pondy, 57, of Winnipeg, Manitoba<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brenda Green, 19, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delores Smith, 50, of Pennsville, N.J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Smith, 37, of Pennsville, N.J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laverne Daniels, 20, of Miami<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Woodrow Triplett, 33, of Bainbridge, GA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today Sunday, May 9th, 2021 will mark 41 years ago that the storm-blinded freighter Summit Venture crashed into the support columns of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, causing a 1,200-foot span… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[221],"class_list":["post-10813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-sunshine-skyway-bridge-disaster"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}