An oil tanker was the cause.

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Talking last night with my father, I remembered when many years ago an oil tanker crashed with our emblematic bridge. piles 31 and 32 of the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge while maneuvering over the navigation channel on the way to Aruba, 5 due to a major electrical failure that caused him to lose control of the rudder. In the face of the emeOgency, the captain ordered the anchor to be dropped and the ship to run aground on the sandbanks on the sides of the navigation channel, but neither measure prevented the collision. ESSO Maracaibo, loaded to capacity with 236,000 barrels of oil, downed a section of some 259 meters from the bridge. Part of it fell into the waters of the lake and others crashed in front of the ship's superstructure. Due to the loss of the bridge, four vehicles rushed into the lake and seven people died, none of them in the tanker, which did not suffer fires, explosions or oil spills. The bridge was reopened almost 9 months later ...