Photo doesn’t show car that fell off Francis Scott Key Bridge during collapse

In the early hours of Tuesday, March 26, a container ship lost power and rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, causing the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River.

A construction crew and several vehicles also plunged into the Patapsco River’s cold waters when the bridge collapsed, the Associated Press reported. 

Images and videos of the collapse, including this livestream video, quickly went viral on social media. 

Viral posts shared on X show a clip from the livestream video of the bridge collapse alongside a photo of a car submerged in water. Several of those posts claim to show “very shocking visuals” from the collapse that led to “multiple cars plunging into the water below.”

The posts with the photo of the submerged car had hundreds of thousands of views at the time of publishing. 

THE QUESTION

Does the viral photo show a car that fell off Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed?

THE SOURCES

• RevEye, a reverse image search tool
• BBC news report published in January 2022
• Original photo shared by the The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service

THE ANSWER

No, this viral photo does not show a car submerged in water after falling off Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. It is from Northern Ireland in January 2022. 

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WHAT WE FOUND

The viral photo does not show a car that fell off Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed. It was shot in January 2022 and shows a car that had crashed into a river in Northern Ireland. 

VERIFY conducted a reverse image search that led us to a BBC News article published on Jan. 1, 2022. 

The BBC article credited the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) West with taking the photo of the submerged car. We searched the NIFRS West Facebook page for the original photo and found that the agency shared it on Jan. 1, 2022. 

The photo shows a car that had crashed into the River Roe near Dungiven, County Londonderry, in Northern Ireland.

According to BBC News, the driver got out of the car himself and was not seriously injured. The NIFRS responded to the scene and used ropes to help the driver up an embankment.  

After the bridge collapse in Baltimore, search and rescue crews used infrared and sonar technology to “mark” five vehicles under water in the Patapsco River, three of which are believed to be passenger vehicles, Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James Wallace told CNN on Tuesday. 

This is a developing story. VERIFY will continue to monitor claims on the Baltimore bridge collapse. Want something VERIFIED? Email the team at questions@verifythis.com.