Former Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley, who served in the Reagan administration, discussed how the investigation “should proceed” in the coming months after the partial bridge collapse in Baltimore early Tuesday morning.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham spoke with Burnley after a container ship rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to break apart. At least half a dozen people are presumed dead.
“You were the transportation secretary in like a golden age of that department in my view, and I’m not saying it in a biased fashion,” said Ingraham, who was a speechwriter in the Reagan administration.
“You were an expert on so many things but tell us what happens next, or what should happen next in this mess of a situation involving a critical port?” she asked.
“First let me mention the six apparent fatalities, apparently all highway maintenance workers. That’s one of the most dangerous and under-appreciated jobs in America,” Burnley said. “Usually, it’s motorists that threaten them and in this case, a bridge comes down.”
In the segment, which was highlighted by the Daily Caller, Burnley went on to talk about the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency tasked with determining the probable causes of transportation accidents and issuing safety recommendations.
“The way this should proceed, and I expect it will proceed, is the investigation will be led by what I believe is the most credible agency in the United States government – that’s the National Transportation Safety Board,” he said.
“It is bipartisan. In fact its most recent appointee was chief of staff at DOT [Department of Transportation] during the Trump administration,” Burnley said. “It has a highly esteemed group of subject matter experts, it will call on the various federal agencies at DOT, at DHS [Department of Homeland Security] – the Army Corps of Engineers, in this case, will be involved.”
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Burnley surmised that it will “probably take quite a few months” before investigators reach their “bottom line conclusions” in looking into the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident.
“But that’s where we should all be focused, is on that agency and what it concludes,” he said. “It will make recommendations that I hope both the Executive Branch and Congress will take very seriously, whatever they are.”