Page 16-Wednesday, May 14, 1980-The Michigan Daily
TAMPA, Fla. (AP)-In the minutes before the of the bridge. He was asked if he could see it after-
"Summit Venture" tore out a section of the Sunshine ward:
Skyway Bridge, the pilot of the 608-foot freighter "Sure," he replied. "I saw it falling down."
reversed engines, ordered the anchor dropped, and Liu said the pilot sent three lookouts forward as the
took a hard left turn, the ship's captain testified ship moved up the channel. A few minutes later, he
yesterday. said, came the orders to turn left, reverse engines,
"When the pilot asked me to stand by the anchor, I and drop anchor.
freig h ter figured something might be wrong," Capt. H.C. Liu DRAWING SKETCHES to illustrate, Liu said the
told a marine board of inquiry investigating the big ship hit the bridge piling head-on, then angled off
tragedy. to the left. He said he looked up.
EIGHT VEHICLES, including a bus with 23 per- "The bridge was all gone," he said.
sons aboard, plummeted into Tampa Bay when 1,400 The piot sent a "mayday" radio call and told Liu to
feet of bridge collapsed after the Friday morning send a crew on deck to look for survivors, he said.
collision. That's when crewmen spotted a man who had
testifies As the board opened its hearings yesterday, the struggled to the surface after his pickup truck
bodies of a man and a woman were found in the bay, plunged off the bridge, hit the ship, and sank.
raising the toll of known dead to 33. Authorities said Pilots are experts on local harbor navigation and
more victims could be hidden in the sunken come aboard vessels to help them in and out of busy
on wage ports.
Liu said that after harbor pilot John Lerro, 37, or- Lerro was appointed a "deputy pilot" at Tampa in
dered the anchor dropped, the ship hit the bridge ina October 1976 after 10months asa pilot on the Panama
co l"very, very short" time. Canal.
C O 1 1 0 f THE SKIPPER SAID he was not able to see the According to state records, Lerro has been in-
bridge before the crash during a thunderstorm. He volved in seven prior reportable incidents in his four
said the weather was so bad that he could not see the years here. The freighter Jonna Dan was piloted by
bouys marking a turn in the channel 1,500 yards west Lerro when it bumped the same bridge on Feb. 16.
A Public Service of this newspaper&The Advertising Council. Law student
takes own life
A tasfinal exam
period begins
(Continued from Page 3)
pistol Harju brought from her family's
house in northern Michigan), and said
Harju had agreed to dismantle it for
O U safety.
Another neighbor, who also asked
not to be identified, said she rode the
commuter bus with Harju ap-
proximately two hours before the
suicide occurred. The neighbor said
Harju seemed her usual quiet self, and
not at all nervous or upset.
THE FIRST neighbor said Harju's
nature was quiet and that of a "loner."
According-to Jill, a counselor for 76-
GUIDE who asked that her last name
not be used, the counseling service has
not received any potential suicide calls
in several weeks. Jill said exams and
other "high-pressure times" bring
more calls to the service, but most
exam periods have been over since
early in the month.
Ann Arbor offers numerous coun-
seling services for persons who are
considering suicide or are simply
depressed about school orany other
aspect of their lives. Some of these ser-
vices include: SOS in Ypsilanti; the
Women's Crisis Center on N, Fourth
Ave.; Ozone House on Main St.; the
Washtenaw County Community Mental
Health Center; the University's coun-
a ilR dCseling division of the Bureau of
Psychological Services on Huron St;
service offered by the Univer-
topuhuonary resusctatfion. ]"
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Red Cross
is counting
onyou.
Do a Tree
a Favor:
Recyle
Your Daily
I