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(WASHINGTON) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced its new emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Friday, which the agency claims will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The move comes in an election year when the Biden-Harris campaign is working to demonstrate achievements in their climate agenda.

The new standards impact vehicles such as freight trucks and buses manufactured for model years 2027-2032. This follows last week’s announcement of updated standards for light and medium-duty vehicles.

“In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news release. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.”

The new performance-based standards reduce the allowed emissions across manufacturer fleets, but are technology-neutral, according to the EPA. This means manufacturers can utilize different combinations of emissions control technologies in order to meet the emissions requirements, including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrids, battery electric vehicles and others.

Over the period covered by the new standards, model years 2027-2032, the required emissions reductions will gradually increase each year.

The administration noted in its announcement of the new rules that heavy-duty vehicles are “vital to the United States economy,” but said that they do create about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

“The 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided by these standards is equivalent to the emissions from more than 13 million tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline,” the EPA said in the release. “With this action, the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history while advancing a historic commitment to environmental justice.”

American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer celebrated the announcement in a statement on Friday.

“Transportation is the largest source of pollution driving climate change. These strong standards that will help drive toward a zero-emission future for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles are a critical part of the solution The American Lung Association celebrates this new rule, which will improve the health of people across the U.S.,” Wimmer wrote.

The administration estimates the new standards will also provide $13 billion in net societal benefits via savings related to public health, the climate and for truck owners and operators.

“EPA’s clean truck standards will cut one billion metric tons of climate pollution by 2055. They’ll also reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides by 53,000 tons in 2055,” the Environmental Defense Fund noted. “And they’ll save our country money — $3.5 billion in average annual savings for fleets, $300 million in average annual health benefits and $13 billion in total annual societal benefits.”

The Heavy-Duty Leadership Group, a self-described “informal alliance of the nation’s leading heavy-duty manufacturers and supply companies,” responded to the new standards Friday, emphasizing their own commitment to reducing emissions from their products. The companies also credited the EPA’s prior rules for “accelerating the industry’s adoption of advanced technologies while minimizing market disruption.”

Cynthia Williams, Ford Motor Company’s global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance, said the EPA’s new rule is “challenging,” but that “Ford is working aggressively to meet the moment.”

“Our industry is making important progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both light- and heavy-duty vehicles,” Williams said in a statement. “We also need policymakers to pair emission standards with incentives and public investment so that we can continue to deliver on the next generation of vehicles and for our nation to lead the future of this industry.”

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(NEW YORK) — Numerous weather alerts have been issued for California, Nevada and Arizona, including a flood watch for Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego, with a significant storm on its way to the West Coast.

After a storm brought 10 to 13 inches of snow from California to Utah earlier this week, a bigger storm is on its way to Southern California with flash flooding, strong winds and heavy snow.

The heaviest rain will move into the San Fransisco Bay area late Friday morning into early afternoon before moving down the coast into Santa Barbara and Los Angeles by the evening and into Saturday morning.

On-and-off showers with thunderstorms will continue Saturday into Sunday for Southern California, including San Diego.

Most areas will see 1 to 3 inches of rain; locally, in the foothills of southern California, up to 6 inches of rain is possible. This could cause cause flash flooding, mudslides, rockslides and debris flow.

In the mountains, from the Sierras to southern California, about 1 to 3 feet of snow are expected.

By Sunday, part of the same storm system will move into the Rockies with heavy snow possible there — locally 1 to 2 feet.

By Monday, the storm will move into the Heartland with severe weather possible from Texas to Illinois. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes.

By Tuesday, severe weather will move into the Ohio River Valley and the Mid-South from Alabama to Ohio with damaging winds, heavy rain and isolated tornadoes.

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(LONDON) — Friday marks a year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia. The first American reporter to be imprisoned by Moscow since the Cold War, he remains trapped in jail while the United States struggles to find a deal with Russia to free him.

Gershkovich, 32, has now spent 12 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison on espionage charges that his newspaper, dozens of leading international media organizations and the U.S. government have denounced as false. He has pleaded not guilty.

The fight to free Gershkovich has become a cause championed by defenders of press freedom around the world, as well as a grueling personal battle for his family. His detention has also changed how international media cover Russia, with most leading outlets no longer basing correspondents in the country.

In an interview this week with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Gershkovich’s parents expressed hope that the Biden administration‘s efforts to have their son released, saying from prison he is also striving to keep their spirits up.

“I think if you let the pessimism in … the game is over,” Ella Millman, Gershkovich’s mother, told George Stephanopoulos in the interview. “And our saying in the family is we’re moving forward. Moving forward.”President Joe Biden has said bringing Gershkovich home is a top priority, and his administration has indicated it is continuing to negotiate with Russia to try to find a deal to release him.Gershkovich, who had worked as a journalist in Russia for several years and was accredited by the Russian foreign ministry, was detained by the FSB domestic intelligence agency last March while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg. FSB officers seized him as he sat in a steak restaurant.

Since then, he has been kept mostly in a two-person cell in Lefortovo, a former KGB jail, awaiting trial. A court this week extended his pretrial detention for a fifth time. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

A native of New Jersey, Gershkovich worked for The New York Times as a news assistant before moving to Russia in 2017 to work first for The Moscow Times and later Agence France-Presse. His parents were Soviet Jewish émigrés, who left Russia in 1979, and Gershkovich grew up speaking Russian, later becoming fascinated with the country. He joined the Wall Street Journal in January 2022.

“Our main focus at the Journal has been to keep Evan’s story front and of mind, to remind people that an innocent journalist is behind bars, in prison of doing his job,” the Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in the “GMA” interview.

Gershkovich is one of several Americans seized by Russia in recent years — among them the WNBA star Brittney Griner — as part of an apparently intensifying campaign of hostage-taking. A former Marine, Paul Whelan, has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges the U.S. and his family say are fabricated. Another U.S. journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been in detention since October, charged under a law used to censor criticism of Russia’s military. Press freedom groups have condemned her arrest and joined RFE/RL in calling for her release.

Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.

In recent months, Russian officials have indicated that they view Gershkovich as a bargaining chip, hoping to exchange him for Russians held in Western countries. President Vladimir Putin, in an interview in February, said he wanted a deal with the U.S. to free Gershkovich. Putin signaled he may want to trade Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian man jailed in Germany as an FSB assassin.

The U.S. in December said Russia had rejected an offer that would have freed Gershkovich and Whelan.

President Biden has met with Gershkovich’s parents. He mentioned Gershkovich and Whelan in his State of the Union address in March, saying, “We’ll work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul,” as Gershkovich’s parents sat in the audience.

“We were happy that both governments have expressed willingness to negotiate,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, told Stephanopoulos. “We are confident that [the White House is] doing everything they can, and we want them to continue to do that.”

The U.S. and the Kremlin have both indicated that talks about a deal are ongoing. Those close to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in prison last month, have claimed there were discussions for a possible trade that would have freed Navalny, as well as Gershkovich and Whelan, in exchange for the Russian assassin, Krasikov.

The Wall Street Journal this week reported Biden and Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz had discussed such a trade but that Navalny had died before it could be proposed to Putin. Navalny’s team has accused Putin of killing Navalny to prevent the trade.

Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, this week expressed confidence that a deal can still be reached.

“Evan will be released, but it’s complicated to get there,” she said. “There are a lot of different people and governments involved. So I think, you know, we just have to be patient, and optimistic.”

The Wall Street Journal has been leading an international campaign among his colleagues and friends to keep attention on Gershkovich’s case, including holding runs for him and 24-hour “read-a-thons” of his work. Time Magazine this month put Gershkovich on its front page.

Gershkovich is able to send and receive letters from prison, keeping in contact with friends and family, who say he retains his characteristic humor. He has even been arranging via others to have gifts delivered for friends’ birthdays and other occasions. The Journal has encouraged people to send letters to Gershkovich via its site.

“He remembers his friends’ birthdays. We received flowers from him for International Women’s Day on March 8,” his mother told ABC News. “He really cares. He wants to thank people for their care about him, for keeping his story front and center.”

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(BALTIMORE) — Just after midnight on Tuesday, the fully loaded container ship Dali lifted anchor and prepared to depart the Port of Baltimore with 23 crew members aboard, destined for Sri Lanka nearly 9,000 miles away.

There was no apparent indication of the catastrophe awaiting the vessel. Authorities said the bridge was undergoing maintenance at the time and that one lane in each direction remained open.

Here is how the incident unfolded:

12:39 a.m. — The 984-foot-long, Singapore-flagged cargo ship pulls out of its berth at a marine terminal southeast of downtown Baltimore, according to ship’s voyage data recorder (VDR) reviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators.

1 a.m. A livestream camera captures light traffic, including a tractor-trailer rig, moving across the 1.6-mile Key Bridge.

1:07 a.m. — The cargo ship enters the Fort McHenry channel and begins to head down the Patapsco River toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to the VDR.

1:24 a.m. — The livestream camera shows the cargo ship’s lights suddenly going off and then coming back on.

1:24:59 a.m. — Numerous audible alarms go off on the bridge of the container ship. The VDR temporarily goes off.

1:26 a.m. — The Dali appears to lose its lights again as it drifts slightly to the right in the direction of one of the bridge’s main center columns supporting the arched steel trusses of the span. At the time, vehicles can still be seen crossing the bridge. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said that about this time a mayday call was made from the vessel, giving transportation officials just enough time to order a halt to traffic approaching both ends of the bridge, likely saving lives.

1:27:39 a.m. — The pilot aboard the ship makes a general VHF radio call for tugboats in the area to assist. At the same time, a Pilot Association dispatcher phones Maryland Transportation Authority duty officers regarding a blackout on the Dali.

1:27:04 a.m. — The pilot aboard the Dali orders the vessel’s port anchor be dropped, according to the VDR.

1:27:25 a.m. — The pilot aboard the cargo ship issues a VHF radio call reporting the Dali has lost all power and was approaching the bridge. Around the same time, a Maryland Transportation Authority duty officer radios the agency’s units, informing them to hold traffic at the south and north ends of the bridge, saying, “There’s a ship approaching it [that] just lost their steering,” according to a recording of the dispatch from Broadcastify.com. The livestream camera shows the cargo ship lights suddenly going off as the vessel appears to drift to the right in the direction of one of the main center columns supporting the arched steel trusses of the span.

1:28 a.m. — Dark smoke appears to be coming from the cargo ship, which is moving at 7 knots, or 8 mph.

1:29:33 a.m.– The VDR on the cargo ship records sounds consistent with the vessel hitting the bridge. Officials said at the time of the collision no traffic was crossing the bridge, but parked vehicles, apparently belonging to the maintenance crew filling potholes, were still on the span. Two maintenance workers survive, one by running from the bridge and the other by going into the water and swimming to shore. Six other maintenance workers remain unaccounted for. A law enforcement officer makes a desperate radio transmission to dispatch, saying, “The whole bridge just fell down. Start whoever, everybody. The whole bridge just collapsed.”

1:39:39 a.m. — The pilot on the Dali tells the Coast Guard over the VHF radio that the Key Bridge is down.

1:40 a.m. — The Baltimore City Fire Department’s 911 center dispatch receives a call about a water rescue in the Patapsco River near the Key Bridge. As fire crews race to the bridge, they receive numerous calls indicating multiple people in the water.

1:50 a.m. — Fire crews arrive at the scene and report a complete collapse of the Key Bridge and that multiple people were likely on the span when it occurred.

6:26 a.m. — At an early morning news conference Tuesday, Baltimore City Fire Chief James Wallace said sonar detected the presence of vehicles submerged in the water and that an all-out search-and-rescue operation involving police, firefighters and U.S. Coast Guard crews was underway to locate survivors.

FBI officials said agents were immediately sent to the bridge, arriving an hour after the collapse. At the White House, President Joe Biden held an early morning meeting with his advisors and ordered the use of resources to help in the rescue operation.

10 a.m. — At a mid-morning news conference Tuesday, the governor announced that the preliminary investigation showed the incident appeared to be a tragic accident.

“The preliminary investigation points toward an accident,” Moore said. “We haven’t seen any credible evidence of a terrorist attack.”

12:46 p.m. — During a press conference Tuesday afternoon from the White House, Biden addressed the bridge collapse. “We’re going to send all the federal resources they need as we respond to this emergency,” he said, referring to his conversation with Baltimore officials.

“We’re incredibly grateful for the brave rescuers who immediately rushed to the scene. And to the people of Baltimore, we want to say, we’re with you, we’re going to stay with you for as long as it takes,” said Biden.

The president echoed local, state and federal officials who said investigators have found no evidence linking the incident to terrorism. Biden called it a “terrible incident and accident.”

2:30 p.m. — Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, says at a news conference that the agency’s investigators arrived at the scene at 6 a.m. Tuesday and were launching their probe of the bridge collapse.

7:30 p.m. — On Tuesday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said it would be suspending search and rescue efforts and began recovery efforts at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

“Based on the length of time that we’ve gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature — at this point, we do not believe that we’re going to find any of these individuals still alive,” Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath told reporters.

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(BALTIMORE) — Six construction workers were killed when a cargo ship struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, sending the workers into the water below, officials said.

The bodies of two victims were recovered on Wednesday, found by divers trapped in a red pickup truck that was submerged in approximately 25 feet of water near the middle span of the bridge, Maryland State Police said.

The other four victims have not been recovered.

The workers found on Wednesday were identified by police as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, a native of Mexico who lived in Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, a native of Guatemala who lived in Dundalk, Maryland.

Among the four still missing is construction worker Miguel Luna.

Luna, 49, was a father of five from Usulutan, California, in El Salvador, his family told ABC News.

Luna called Maryland home for over 19 years, according to Court Appointed Special Advocates, a group that works with immigrants.

Another missing victim was identified as Maynor Suazo Sandoval, a father of two who migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago, according to Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA.

He dreamed of starting a small business and brought joy and humor to his family, Torres told reporters on Wednesday.

The final two victims have not been identified.

One missing worker is a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula, in Guatemala, the country’s foreign ministry said.

The last missing worker is from Mexico, the country’s foreign ministry said.

Two construction workers survived the collapse.

ABC News’ Kristina Abovyan, Davi Merchan and Dhanika Pineda contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) – A judge sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison Thursday for orchestrating what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.

Bankman-Fried, 32, of Stanford, California, was convicted last November of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

He was accused of using customer deposits on the cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, the company he founded, to cover losses at his hedge fund, pay off loans and buy lavish real estate, among other personal expenses.

Prosecutors have said he deserves between 40 and 50 years in prison because of the “enormous scale of the fraud.”

Bankman-Fried addressed the court before sentencing, standing at the defense table with his arms folded in front of him, looking down and often mumbling.

He conceded his “mismanagement” caused Alameda, his privately controlled hedge fund, to shut down after its initial success and said he “failed everyone and everything I care about too.”

“I threw all of that away. It haunts me every day,” he said. “I made a series of bad decisions. They weren’t selfish decisions, they weren’t selfless decisions, they were bad decisions.”

Bankman-Fried also acknowledged FTX customers have not been made whole. “The customers, creditors lenders, they haven’t been paid back,” he said. “That has caused a lot of damage.”

Sunil Kavuri, a London-based technology investor at Shomei Group, addressed the court Thursday before sentencing on behalf of 200 victims, he said.

“I suffered every day,” Kavuri said. “This is a continuous lie that we are all made whole [through bankruptcy payments].” He added that he had “money I wanted to spend on a family home taken away.”

Kavuri told the court he knows FTX victims who are suffering from depression and he said victims have taken their own lives.

More than $8 billion of customer money was misappropriated, which “puts this crime in a class of cases that can be counted on one hand,” prosecutors said. Beyond that, Bankman-Fried “victimized tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years. He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him; he lied to investors; he sent fabricated documents to lenders; he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system; and he bribed foreign officials.”

Judge Lewis Kaplan immediately rejected Bankman-Fried’s claim Thursday that his fraud was not $8 billion as prosecutors alleged.

“The defendant’s argument hinges on what amounts to an assumption that customers of FTX are going to be made whole in the bankruptcy,” Kaplan said. “The defendant’s assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading; it is logically flawed.”

Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role at FTX in November 2022 amid a rapid collapse that ended with the company — once valued at $32 billion at its peak — declaring bankruptcy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Roos said a stiff sentence for Sam Bankman-Fried is warranted because “the defendant could commit crimes again.”

The prosecutor noted that Bankman-Fried did “not swear off doing it again” when he addressed the court.

“A sentence here of at least 40 years is necessary to make sure the defendant cannot do it again,” Roos said.

The prosecutor spoke of victims who lost everything because they trusted Bankman-Fried when he told them, via social media or some other platform, that their money was safe.

“The defendant is not a monster but he is someone who committed gravely serious crimes,” Roos said. “The criminality here is massive in scale, it was pervasive in all aspects of the business. This was not a great business that had a problem at the end. It was pervaded with fraud.”

Prior to Thursday’s sentencing, defense attorneys called the government’s ask for 40 to 50 years in prison “barbaric” and argued Bankman-Fried deserved about six years in prison because of how “deeply, deeply sorry he is for the pain he caused.” They also said the “harm to customers, lenders, and investors is zero.”

On Thursday, defense attorney Mark Mukasey insisted Bankman-Fried possesses compassion, empathy and generosity and “really, he’s an awkward math nerd.”

“He loves video games and veganism,” Mukasey told the court. “He’s compassionate to animals and children. He has a tireless work ethic. He has a completely off-the-charts, mind-blowing intellect.”

While his fraud has been compared to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Mukasey said the 32-year-old is no stone-cold financial assassin.

“That level of depravity is nowhere in this case. I don’t think it’s anywhere in Sam’s heart,” Mukasey said. “Sam is on the opposite end of the culpability scale.”

The lawyer added, “Sam never scurried away with billions of dollars in a Swiss bank account or under his mattress.”

Prosecutors have cast Bankman-Fried differently.

“With all the advantages conferred by a comfortable upbringing, an MIT education, a prestigious start to his career in finance, and a worthy idea for a startup business, Bankman-Fried could have pursued the rewarding, productive, and altruistic life he has sketched out in his sentencing submission. But instead, his life in recent years has been one of unmatched greed and hubris; of ambition and rationalization; and courting risk and gambling repeatedly with other people’s money,” prosecutors said.

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(ROCKFORD, Ill.) — An adult male allegedly stabbed multiple victims in the Rockford, Illinois area on Wednesday, leaving four people dead, one in critical condition and four others in stable condition, authorities said in a press conference Wednesday.

Rockford police say the suspect is in custody and there is no known motive at this time.

“Words can’t even express my thoughts right now; this a pretty painstaking event,” the Rockford police chief said, adding, “This was a heinous crime.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis vowed to bring former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case to trial in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, arguing that her office has fully complied with a congressional subpoena related to a federal funding probe.

“[N]othing that you do will derail the efforts of my staff and I to bring the election interference prosecution to trial so that a jury of Fulton County citizens can determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants,” Willis wrote in the letter, which was sent on Monday.

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee in February issued a subpoena to Willis for documents related to her office’s use of federal funds intended to support at-risk youth, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by ABC News.

Earlier this month, Jordan warned that if Willis’ office failed to turn over related documents by March 28, he would consider “taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”

In her letter responding to Jordan, Willis wrote “I categorically reject” the assertion that her office is deficient in complying with the subpoena.

Willis said that her office was turning over additional information but pushed back on the idea that all the requested materials could reasonably be turned over by the following day.

“That demand is unreasonable and uncustomary and would require this government office to divert resources from our primary purpose of prosecuting crime,” she said.

Willis added that her office plans to turn over an additional production of records in the coming weeks.

“Let me be clear, while we are abiding by your subpoena in good faith and with due diligence, we will not divert resources that undermine our duty to the people of Fulton County to prosecute felonies committed in this jurisdiction,” Willis said. “We will not shut down this office’s efforts to prosecute crime — including gang activity, acts of violence and public corruption — to meet unreasonable deadlines in your politically motivated ‘investigation’ of this office.”

“My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks,” she wrote. “Neither those threats, nor anything your colleagues and you say or do, will deter us from fulfilling our duty to bring this case to trial.”

“My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks,” she wrote. “Neither those threats, nor anything your colleagues and you say or do, will deter us from fulfilling our duty to bring this case to trial.”

Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.

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(BALTIMORE) — In the wake of the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, engineering and infrastructure policy experts explained the critical need for bridge reform in the United States and an international standard for large cargo ships.

The Key Bridge partially collapsed early Tuesday morning after a massive cargo ship collided with one of the bridge’s support columns, sending vehicles into the Patapsco River below and leaving six people unaccounted for, according to officials.

The investigation into the cause of both the collision and the bridge collapse is ongoing, officials said.

Rick Geddes, infrastructure policy expert and director of the Cornell University Infrastructure Policy Program, weighed in on the infrastructure and safety of the Key Bridge.

“This disaster reveals how exposed America’s critical infrastructure is to sudden and devastating accidents as well as intentional destruction,” Geddes said in a statement to ABC News. “I think the bridge was not designed to take the force and the mass of an enormous cargo ship directly hitting one of the pylons,” Geddes said in an interview with ABC News.

Pylons, or piers, are the critical load-bearing components of cable-supported bridges, such as Baltimore’s Key Bridge, a 1.6-mile-long, continuous truss-style bridge, according to Geddes.

Modern protective measures for bridge piers include adding “fenders,” which are protection systems designed to protect the bridge from vessels transiting under or in the vicinity of the bridge, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Fenders on modern bridges include “dolphins,” which are large circular walls filled with material such as sand or concrete and “artificial islands,” armored artificial islands around the piers made of a sand core that is protected against wave and current action by armored slope protection, according to the Coast Guard.

However, it is not yet known whether or not the Baltimore Key Bridge had fenders at the time of the crash.

The Maryland Transportation Authority did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for a comment.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also weighed in on the bridge’s ability to withstand a massive cargo ship collision Wednesday, “What we do know is a bridge like this one completed in the 1970s was simply not made to withstand a direct impact on a critical support pier from a vessel that weighs about 200 million pounds,” he said during a press briefing.

“Right now, I think there’s a lot of debate taking place in the engineering community about whether or not any of those features could have had any role in a situation like this,” Buttigieg added.

The 984-feet-long and 157-feet-wide cargo ship — operated by Synergy Marine Group and named Dali — was moving at a speed of 8 knots, or about 9 mph, when it struck the bridge, according to officials.

“So it’s a tremendous force, that the bridge would have to be designed to absorb,” Geddes said, adding, “It clearly was not designed to take that.”

Construction of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge began in 1972 and finished in March 1977, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA).

Maria Lehman, former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, told ABC News that older bridges are not designed with the post Panama Canal expansion ship allowances in mind.

In 2016, the Panama Canal expansion project constructed pathways — on both the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal — that are 70 feet wider and 18 feet deeper, to accommodate larger cargo ships.

Lehman said because Baltimore’s Key Bridge was created with smaller cargo ships in mind, it was “inadequate for what we see with ships today.”

“Pier protection on long-span bridges that have been built within the last decade are in line with what you’re gonna need based on how heavy these new ships are,” Lehman said.

Lehman said the news of the Key Bridge collapse Tuesday reminded her of the 1980 Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse in Tampa, Florida, which she said was a “very similar” bridge and spurred a “base standard for pier protection” in the United States.

In May 1980, the M/V Summit Venture freighter struck a support beam on the Skyway Bridge causing a major collapse that left 35 people dead. The now 44-year-old tragedy spurred changes to the engineering of bridges that have been built since, according to Lehman.

Three years after the Skyway Bridge incident, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration released a technical advisory titled “Pier Protection and Warning Systems for Bridges Subject to Ship Collisions”

In the 1983 advisory, the agency noted, “It may be extremely difficult to retrofit some existing bridge piers with protective systems. For this reason, it becomes particularly important to recognize the potential hazards from ship collisions and to locate and design piers on new bridges in such a way that the risks of collision are reduced to an acceptable level.”

Baltimore’s Key Bridge was constructed in 1977 and did not have the protected pier measures that bridges built in the decades since this advisory.

“Unless you’re doing a major retrofit of any piece of infrastructure, you don’t have to bring it up to code,” Lehman said, adding that the Key Bridge collapse is a “wake-up” call for better bridge infrastructure and reform.

“I think just like Sunshine Skyway was a wake-up call, I think this is the next wake-up call,” Lehman said, adding, “We’re going to have to take a look closely at the results of what happened, and then work on the plan. So it never happens again.”

In June 2023, Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) officials announced the construction of the Delaware Memorial Bridge Protection System.

“Our goal is to take preemptive measures to prevent a commercial vessel from striking one of the bridge towers, which could cause significant damage to the bridge infrastructure and disruptions to interstate travel,” Thomas J. Cook, executive director of the DRBA said in a press release.

The cost of the project is nearly $93 million, according to the release.

Rick Geddes hopes the devastation from the Key Bridge collapse will spur great reform in America’s bridge infrastructure safety.

“The real possibility of a massive container ship of this size, running into a bridge pylon, and causing the bridge collapse is no longer theoretical,” Geddes said. “I think a renewed effort to inspect and assess the state of a whole bunch of U.S. bridges will be the result of this accident.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A California man was sentenced to 11 months in prison for making threatening calls to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

David Carrier, 44, of Concord, had pleaded guilty to two counts of making threats against public officials in December 2023.

Federal prosecutors had only sought a sentence of four years of probation for Carrier, noting he quickly accepted guilt and acknowledged his “lapse of judgment” in making the threats, according to a sentencing memorandum filed last week.

The judge overseeing his case ultimately disagreed. In addition to the 11-month prison sentence, Judge William Alsup ordered Carrier to three years of probation as well as requiring him to seek mental and substance abuse treatment upon his release during a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Carrier left a voicemail with Pelosi’s San Francisco office on Jan. 21, 2021, the day after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to federal prosecutors.

“You better resign, you piece of f—— s—,” Carrier said in his voicemail to Pelosi’s office, according to the sentencing memorandum. “Cause we got a bullet and a rope with your f—— name on it. We’re gonna f—— get you b—-.”

An intern who initially heard the message perceived it as a threat and forwarded it to her bosses, who subsequently forwarded the voicemail to law enforcement for investigation, according to prosecutors.

More than a year later, he made threatening calls to Mayorkas, prosecutors said. According to the sentencing memorandum, on June 30, 2022, he told an operator with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General to relay the following message: “If [Mayorkas] does not close the border someone is going to be shot. And it will be illegal immigrants.”

Later that day, he left a voicemail with the DHS general hotline stating, according to the sentencing memorandum, “Tell that f— Mayorkas to close the border before we citizens start killing those f—— illegal immigrants or we come looking for him and feed him to the dogs.”

The voicemail message was perceived as a threat and forwarded to law enforcement for investigation, prosecutors said.

“Participating in the public political conversation is an important right for all citizens. Nevertheless, threatening our public servants is not protected by the First Amendment and corrodes our ability to engage in peaceful and important public discourse,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement. “This Office will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line to criminal threats.”

ABC News has reached out to Carrier’s attorney for comment on the sentencing.

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