On the morning of May 9, 1980, the Summit Venture, a 609-foot-long freighter, was caught in a sudden storm and collided with the Sunshine Skyway bridge, sending a portion of the southbound span — and 36 people — into the water 150 feet below.
Only one person survived.
Around 7:30 a.m. that day, the Summit Venture, captained by Tampa harbor pilot John Lerro, was hit by a squall as it made the turn in the Tampa Bay shipping channel near the bridge.
The onslaught of tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain left Lerro steering blind.
Multiple factors, including the possibility that other ships navigating the channel could run into the Summit Venture if it changed course, led the captain to attempt to guide the ship between the bridge’s main piers.
However, the wind changed direction and pushed the vessel out of the channel. When the captain realized where the ship was headed, he put the vessel in full reverse and dropped the anchor.
He was too late. The bow of the Venture collided with two support piers, one of which failed, collapsing a portion of the bridge.
The dispatch from the Venture was: “Skyway disaster, Skyway disaster. Mayday. Mayday at the Skyway Bridge.”
Car after car after truck after bus drove off the edge of the bridge. In the eight passenger vehicles and the Greyhound bus that went over the edge, only one person survived.
Looking back: the Sunshine Skyway disaster
Paul Roat, a reporter/photographer at the former Islander newspaper in 1980, was on the Sunshine Skyway shortly after the Summit Venture crashed into the bridge to record the aftermath of the May 1980 disaster. Roat also was a longtime editor and reporter for The Islander, which started up in 1992. He died Feb. 15, 2014.
To read his recollections of that day, go to islander.org/5-11-05/skyway_diaster.php.