‘I was the one who saw the last expression on their face’: Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster remembered 44 years later
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — The day was May 9, 1980.
A distress call from the U.S. Coast Guard sounded, “Mayday mayday mayday Coast Guard, mayday mayday mayday Coast Guard.”
The 19,734-ton Summit Venture freighter, fighting 60 mph winds with blinding fog and rain, slammed into the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
That’s when a chunk of concrete more than 1,200 feet long cracked.
One by one, six cars, one pickup and a bus fell into the water below.
“I was the one who saw the last expression on their face,” Robert Raiola said.
Thirty-five people were killed and someone had to dive down and get the bodies.
Raiola bravely took on the job.
“I said a soft prayer and apologized to each one of those victims that I picked up and removed from that bus — every single one of them,” he said.
These are the victims of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge Disaster:
Duane Adderly, 21, of Miami
Alphonso Blidge, 22, of Miami
Myrtle Brown, 58, of St. Johns, Newfoundland
Willis Brown, 57, of St. Johns, Newfoundland
John Callaway Jr., 19, of Miami
John Carlson, 47, of Pinellas Park
Doris Carlson, 42, of Pinellas Park
Leslie Coleman Jr., 52, of St. Petersburg
Charles Collins, 40, of Tampa
Michael Curtin, 43, of Apollo Beach
Laverne Daniels, 20, of Miami
Sandra Davis, 34, of Boardman
Hildred Dietch, 73, of St. Petersburg
Harry Dietch, 68, of St. Petersburg
Sharon Dixon, 21, of Miami
Brenda Green, 19, of Miami
Robert Harding, 63, of Glens Falls, N.Y.
Gerda Hedquist, 92, of Charlotte Harbor
Aubrey Hudson, 62, of St. Johns, Newfoundland
Phyllis Hudson, 58, of St. Johns, Newfoundland
Louise Johnson, 59, of Cataula, Ga.
Yvonne Johnson, 22, of Perrine
Horace Lemons, 47, of Kings Mountain, N.C.
Lillian Loucks, 69, of Winnipeg, Manitoba
Louis Lucas Jr., 62, of Dolomite, Ala.
Marguerite Mathison, 82, of St. Petersburg
Manesha McGarrah, 7 months, of Tallahassee
Wanda McGarrah, 24, of Tallahassee
Tawana McClendon, 20, of Palmetto
Ann Pondy, 57, of Winnipeg, Manitoba
James Pryor, 42, of Seminole
Melborne Russell, 38, of Chicago, Iill.
Delores Smith, 50, of Pennsville, N.J.
Robert Smith, 37, of Pennsville, N.J.
Woodrow Triplett, 33, of Sarasota
Almost everyone blamed the ship’s pilot, John Lerro, but one Tampa attorney, Steve Yerrid, proved them all wrong.
“They brought in the National Weather Service, I remember it well,” Yerrid said. “A guy from North Carolina, I don’t remember his name.”
“He said, ‘we gave the warning the morning of May 9,” Yerrid said.
Yerrid fought to exonerate Lerro.
Many were saying Lerro should’ve never taken the ship out that day because of the warning.
But during the trial, the evidence cleared him.
“I said, ‘what time was the warning issued?'” Yerrid said. “When he looked at it, all of the sudden he was silent and then he turned red and then he turned purple.”
“I said, ‘will you please answer the question,'” he said. “He said, ‘8:30 a.m.'”.
“I said, ‘well, tell me — it wouldn’t have done much good for a pilot who hit the bridge at 7:34 a.m. would it?” Yerrid said.
44 years later, drivers passing by may notice a beautiful bridge that lights up the night sky. But for the people involved in that disaster, it serves as a solemn reminder of May 9, 1980.
“Everyone has their own thoughts on that,” Raiola said. “I know that when Steve Yerrid sees it, he sees the courtroom.”
“He sees John Lerro,” he said. “I have been asked this many of times, and when I think of the Skyway, when I see it, unfortunately I see the victims in that bus.”
Eight months after Lerro returned to work, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
That disease took his life in 2002.
Over four decades later, the deeply emotional details and stark images are part of an Amazon documentary.
Upcoming screenings are scheduled at the USF Marshall Student Center at 7 p.m. on June 12 and at the Green Light Cinema in St. Petersburg at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on June 21.
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