If one or more officers were calling out to crew as the bridge went down, it may have been in vain.

Cpl. Jim Kruszynski, the president of the union representing transportation authority officers, said Thursday he hadn’t heard that in his conversations with the three officers, who he said were “heroes” that morning. He doubted, given the distance from the crew’s work area to the base of the bridge, that the crew would have been able to see or hear anything from police.

“The bridge is huge. For the crew being up at the main stand, and traffic held at the base — I mean, it’s a long way away from each other,” he said. “There’s no, like, hand signals. You’re not going to see them by line of sight.”

Officers “definitely did not get up” onto the bridge, Kruszynski added. “Had they, they would’ve went into the water, also.”

The three officers, identified Thursday as Sgt. Paul Pastorek, Cpl. Jeremy Herbert and Officer Garry Kirts, were honored during the Baltimore Orioles’ opening day game. In a joint statement, the officers said “no amount of training could have prepared anyone for the events that took place on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”

“We were proud to carry out our duties as officers of this state to save the lives that we could, and we are grateful for the incredible amount of support from this community that we love so much,” it said.

Spokespeople for the transportation authority police did not immediately respond to questions Thursday about their expectations for communication between officers and the crews they’re stationed to help. A representative from the construction company, Brawner Builders, did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

It remains unclear what methods of communication were at the police and dispatchers’ disposal to contact either the construction crew or state inspector.

The archived radio communications show the duty officer suggesting, less than a minute before the crash, that officers “just make sure no one’s on the bridge right now.”

“Might want to notify whoever the foreman is,” the duty officer said, “see if we can get them off the bridge temporarily.”

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