‘I consider myself very lucky’: This man was one of the last to make it off the Baltimore bridge before its collapse

It was just past 1 a.m. on March 26 and Larry DeSantis was headed to his second job at Herman’s Bakery in the Baltimore area -– the halfway point of another long but normal workday.

It was just past 1 a.m. on March 26 and Larry DeSantis was headed to his second job at Herman’s Bakery in the Baltimore area -– the halfway point of another long, but normal, workday. When a ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its catastrophic collapse, that day led to a shocking brush with death. DeSantis says he believes he was one of the last people to get off the bridge before the deadly collision. In an interview with CNN, he recalled his drive across, “focusing on the guys on the bridge” and trying to drive carefully around them, DeSantis told CNN. “I really didn’t even see the ship at all. I just focused on what was right in front of me.” The only indication that something was wrong was what DeSantis described as a lack of vehicles, even that early in the morning. “There was one other vehicle behind me,” he said. “It was a tractor, but he didn’t have a trailer because I actually got in front of him right as we started to go over the bridge.”