The Tasman Bridge Disaster (Explainer) 

I had an appointment for a driving test at 9pm the morning after the Lake Illawarra hit the bridge. I heard the bridge had gone down and could see it from my window. My driving instructor wanted me to drive past the bridge so that he could have a good look at it. I kept my eyes firmly on the road and got my license. I remember one of the cars balancing over the edge was a two door hatch. He’d stopped before the edge after seeing the taillights in front of him go down. Someone then bumped into him pushing him that little bit further over. The driver couldn’t try to get out of the driver’s door because it was rocking each time he moved. He ended up crawling over to the back and out of the back window. Interestingly one of the two drivers had only one arm but the photo that was in The Mercury gave him an extra arm. So many people claimed to have just missed going over the bridge that night - something like the population of Hobart said it had been a close call. One of the men who went over the bridge was on the way home from visiting his terminally I’ll wife. They decided not to tell her that her husband had gone through the gap. She died within days and wasn’t ever aware of his fate. I still wonder whether that was the right thing to do - perhaps it was the most compassionate given her semi comatose state. RIP all those affected that night.

Great video information wise, but as a suggestion on future videos like this perhaps using a different sound effect to the 'cymbal punchline' between your transitions would be a better idea.

RU-vid recommended me this while I was going over the bridge a few weeks ago

I arrived several weeks after the crash. We had to drive far north then cross on some type of military inflated floating bridge. It took about 90 minutes to get to the other side.

dunno why youtube suggested this video for me .. but im glad it did .

Great Video. IT is a very interesting part of Hobart/Tasmanian History. It is a little over cautious that traffic on the Bridge has to stop for all piloted ships going underneath it still to this day.

I worked for ANL when this happened and saw many files related to the incident. From memory the ship ended up in 20 feet of mud.

CORRECTION FROM A VIEWER: “They didn’t try to go through the other span. What happened is they realised that the leading lights weren’t in line they had to correct. The ship over corrected so they corrected again at this stage they ordered full sea speed to gain control. Realising they have lost total control and were heading through the other span they ordered full reverse. The stern began to swing around and the ship sheared off the pylons. The reason the ship sank so fast is they had the hatches open ready for discharging the cargo.” ANOTHER CORRECTION FROM A VIEWER: "Pelc didn't 'decide to pass through one of the smaller columns'. The ship had issues with steering all the way from Port Pirie and when they were coming up the Derwent, they realised they weren't in line with the central navigation lights. They tried a number of manoeuvres to correct it, but they were being dragged up river by a strong current. Even by trying to ditch the vessel up on the bank or dropping anchors, it was too late. There were rumours that Pelc was drunk, but these were disproven." Comments will be removed if they are: • defamatory or otherwise unlawful; • intentionally false or misleading; • an infringement of intellectual property rights, including copyright. Brief quotes with correct attributions are exempt; • abusive, offensive, or obscene; • inappropriate, off topic, repetitive, or vexatious. Your comment will also be removed if it compromises the privacy of any person. Endorsements of commercial products and services will be removed. A couple of style points: 1. Lowercase letters are quieter and softer on the eyes. Upper case words are the equivalent of shouting. Comments that have been typed in 'shouty caps' will be deleted. 2. Use a spellchecker in your browser before you post a comment. Alternatively, compose your comment in a word processor, run the spellchecker, and then cut and paste it into this thread. A surprisingly high proportion of comments have one or more spelling errors. I don’t expect perfection but I would appreciate it if you can tweak your comment at your end rather than rely on me to do it.

Nice video. I was told a number of years ago that the ship was off course because it was ahead of time. Due to this cut power or at least slowed to take a wider arc before continuing under the main span but due to the fact that it was a single screw design and possibly tidal factors was unable to get back on course. Interesting.

the tasman bridge was built as a 4 lane bridge before the collapes it now as 5 lanes the walkway were extend out so they could make the 5th lane

I’ve seen many ships that ran into bridges. Why don’t bridge makers install pairs of huge concrete barriers at least 100 yards on each side of bridges? That would prevent ships from hitting bridges because first they’d have to navigate through the concrete barriers. It would be a lot cheaper building huge barriers than paying to rebuild bridges and paying for all the lawsuits that follow disasters like this.

Brilliant job, I Respectfully hit the like button which I see as the doorbell into somebody else's work and happily subscribed 😀 👍.

Two months prior to this l was driving over this bridge just before the crest l said to my wife, imagine if we got to the top at 100 k and there was no more road, it a long way to fall. You can't see anything just before the crest . The night the ship hit the bridge l was watching TV and decided to go for a drive to see a cousin on the eastern shore, l didn't get there, the bridge went down 40 minutes before l got to the exit.

That was great and concise, much appreciated.

The Bailey bridge was constructed slightly downstream of where the Bowen bridge stands today. You can see on the eastern shore the man made abutment for where the bridge was built.

It’s amazing it’s still 1975 in Hobart-the place that time forgot. Half asleep on a constant basis.

I was working in Tasmania at the time the ship hit the bridge

Not mentioned is traffic is stopped when a ship is passing under. Just in case.

i had almost forgotten this. i was just a child at the time.

Awesome , Thanks CJJ

informative! but I have to ask, why a rimshot as a transition noise?

i went over the Tasman Bridge and its amazing site

Tasmania should be connected to the Australian mainland with a tunnel or bridge

I’m from Tasmania and this was a great video

The old hq Monaro and fb special just hanging there over night😲

i probably wouldn't have been born if my dad went into the water that night. he went over it not long before the crash... i would hate to imagine how scary it would have been for the victims.

What is your accent Kiwi or South Australia?

Just watching westgate bridge

Not quite factually correct. Pelc didn't "decide to pass through one of the smaller columns" - the ship had issues with steering all the way from.Port Pirie and when they were coming up the Derwent they realised they weren't in line with the central navigation lights, tried a number of manouvers to correct it but they were being dragged up river by a strong river current. Even by trying to ditch the vessel up on the bank or dropping anchors, it was too late. There was always rumours that Pelc was drunk but that was disproven.

The Johnny Carson symbols are cheesy

How deep is that channel?

Is that a Tasmanian accent I hear from narrator??

I'm from tassie and i didn't even know the ship sank and is still there

How did that ship captain not end up in prison? I read the bit down below, about how it supposedly happened. It didn't sound like he got punished at all, and that's a damn shame. All that loss of life because he decided not to pay attention at a time when he needed to the most.