Documentary about 1980 Skyway Bridge disaster screens in St. Pete this week

Former FDOT divers Robert Raiola and Mike Betz will take part in a post-screening Q&A, too.

click to enlarge Documentary about 1980 Skyway Bridge disaster screens in St. Pete this week
Photo via Skyway Bridge Disaster/YouTube (screengrab by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay)
With the RFP to rebuild Baltimore’s tragically-collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge due last week, it’s easy to think about Tampa Bay’s own Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

The 430-foot tall span we see today is the second iteration; the first featured a 1,584-foot long steel cantilever span that came crashing down on May 9, 1980 when a phosphate carrier ship hit the pier. Six cars, one truck and a Greyhound bus carrying 23 three people fell into Tampa Bay; 35 people died.

The fallout from the accident has been dramatized in plays (“Mayday”), and this weekend, Green Light Cinema, a St. Petersburg indie-movie house screens a documentary that tracks the lives of those involved, after the fall.

Former FDOT divers Robert Raiola and Mike Betz will take part in a post-screening Q&A, too.

Tickets to see “The Skyway Bridge Disaster” documentary Friday, June 21 at Green Light Cinema in St. Petersburg are still available and start at $13.
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Ray Roa

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief in August 2019. Past work can be seen at Suburban Apologist, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence of Sound and The...
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