COMMAERNTTARY
THE SKYWAY BRIDGE DISASTER
May 2019 was the 39th
anniversary of the
catastrophic Skyway
disaster in the history
of Tampa Bay, the collapse of a major
bridge following a combination of
circumstances involving a narrow
shipping channel, unprotected
support pilings and a sudden
intense storm. What’s left of the
old Skyway Bridge is now a fishing
pier. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
About 7:30 in the morning, a very big
freighter was headed into Tampa Bay to
pick up some phosphate. But first, the
ship had to get through a very narrow
entrance. Without warning, a storm rose
up. Visibility was suddenly zero, and the
winds were so intense that the ship was
blown out of control and crashed into
a main support column of the Skyway
Bridge, prompting 1,300 feet of its center
span to collapse onto the ship. Vehicles
trying to cross the bridge at that moment
plunged over the edge of the roadway
from 100 feet above the water. Six cars,
a truck and a Greyhound bus on the
center span at the time tumbled off the
bridge. Thirty-five people were killed.
Some landed on the bow of the freighter,
Summit Venture. Only one person who
went off the bridge survived.
Tampa Attorney Steve Yerrid was 24
years old and fresh out of law school at
the time. Yerrid represented John Lerro,
By John Wilson
the freighter’s pilot, who had just gotten
on board when the boat passed Egmont
Key, the island near the Skyway where
Tampa Bay pilots wait for boats. Pilots
are trained to safely maneuver vessels
in and out of Tampa Bay by navigating
a very narrow and shallow channel. The
state and the Coast Guard tried to make
a case that the pilot ignored a weather
warning, but Yerrid disclosed that the
National Weather Service had not issued
a severe storm warning before the ship
hit the bridge.
Next, he discovered that the state of
Florida was liable because pilings that
supported part of the center span were
not protected by bumpers or islands built
around the base of the columns. Since
the pilot had no warning of the sudden
storm and its tropical force winds as he
faced an outbound fuel tanker in the
blinding fog, the Summit Venture was
blown into the bridge’s center support
columns, causing the disaster. Each
of the families of the 35 people who
144 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2019
were killed received damages
amounting to about $300,000 each.
Over the years, Lerro and Yerrid
became close friends. Lerro later
died of multiple sclerosis.
There were lessons learned from
this accident: Threatening high
wind warnings are now issued;
the National Weather Service is
far more proficient than it was
39 years ago; and the Florida
Highway Patrol now closes the bridge
when threatening weather approaches.
However, the shipping channel is still
so narrow inside Tampa Bay that large
vessels cannot easily pass each other.
The channel must be dredged regularly
because the bottom is mostly sand. The
U.S. Navy cannot regularly use ports in
Tampa Bay, since getting warships out of
Tampa Bay in a hurry would be difficult
due to these conditions.
Steve Yerrid is producing a documentary
film about the Skyway disaster that is to
be released this summer. As the narrator
of the film, I have learned much about
this historic event than I ever expected I
would. You will probably be surprised by
some of the information the film contains.
I was. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who
retired from Fox TV in 2014, worked more
than 50 years in radio and television news
broadcasting.
John Wilson