When the ship crew realized they were in trouble the local pilot (who was on board the ship) immediately sent out a "Mayday" message to the bridge folks about being near the bridge, and the state police reacted literally instantly - within seconds they had the traffic onto the bridge stopped, and 30 seconds after the last vehicle was off of the decking the tanker hit the bridge.

The workers on the bridge were repairing potholes on the bridge; eight went into the water, two were rescued. The others are now presumed dead and the work shifted to recovery.