Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joined CNN on Tuesday to discuss the state of a collapsed bridge in the city and urged news networks to stop airing the footage of the collapse as it is “traumatizing our community.”
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major bridge in Baltimore collapsed on Tuesday after being hit by a cargo container ship, sending at least eight people into the Patapsco River. As a National Transportation Safety Board team is dispatched to the site of the collapse, preliminary investigations indicated that the incident was an accident.
“We have an unspeakable tragedy,” Scott told CNN’s Sara Sidner. “We know that this vessel struck the bridge and the bridge collapsed. There were individuals working on the bridge at that time. There are cars in the water.”
Scott added that the focus right now is a search and rescue mission that is underway in an attempt to find the missing individuals.
“Right now, everyone in this world’s focus should be about these souls and those families who are wondering if these people are going to walk back in the door after they walked out to work last night,” the Baltimore Mayor said.
Sidner asked about the scene of the incident which Scott described as “something out of an action movie.”
“I’m going to be the first to ask that CNN and everyone else stop showing the video,” Scott said of the footage of the moment the bridge collapsed.
“No one needs to see a possibility of their family member being severely injured or otherwise. Over and over and over again because it’s just traumatizing our community,” Scott continued.
“Fair enough,” Sidner replied.
