ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday reminded many in Tampa Bay about the Sunshine Skyway Bridge tragedy in 1980.

It happened on May 9 of that year when a 609-foot freighter hit the bridge's support beams during morning rush hour. Thirty-five people fell to their deaths. Memories of that day came rushing back to Aaron and Gloria Peelar when they saw the images coming out of Baltimore.

What You Need To Know

  • Aaron and Gloria Peelar said hearing the news of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge reminded them of a similar tragedy here in Tampa Bay

  • The Sunshine Skyway Bridge partially collapsed in 1980 after a freighter slammed into it

  • The bridge was a normal part of Aaron's commute. He said delays may have stopped him from being on the bridge when it collapsed

  • 35 people died in the Sunshine Skyway collapse

“When I saw that on the news this morning, I just said, ‘Not again,’” said Gloria.

Forty-four years ago, the Skyway Bridge was a regular part of the commute for Aaron, who worked in Bradenton. They said on the morning of the collapse; the weather was terrible.

“My husband, before he left home, it was raining so hard. I said, ‘You’re gonna drown in the driveway,’” Gloria, 68, said.

“I had one goal, and that was to get to work,” said Aaron. “I drove by the lines on the ground because you couldn’t see. It was so dark.”

Aaron said when he got to the bridge, he paid his toll and began to drive over. He stopped when he saw another vehicle’s lights coming toward him.

“Somebody had turned around and was coming down. I was coming up, coming up on the peak, and when I got up, I saw something that wasn’t right,” he said.

Aaron began backing down, not realizing part of the bridge had been destroyed. Gloria, then a nursing student, said she found out about it when she got to class.

“What scared me so was they told me the last car that went over was a yellow car with a black top, and that was the color of the car he was driving at the time,” she said.

Gloria said she got their two-year-old daughter and went in search of answers.

“They had me at Fort DeSoto looking at bodies,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, Lord, please.’ I was looking at my daughter, ‘cause she was there with me, and I just said, ‘I don’t know, if he’s gone, how I’m gonna tell you.’ I did have a cousin on the Greyhound bus, so I saw her body.”

Aaron, meanwhile, said he was struggling to get to work. Not only did he say car issues delayed the start of his drive to work, but they also caused him to be very late. He said it wasn’t until he arrived that he found out what happened.

“His job called me and said, ‘He’s okay,’” said Gloria. “I said, ‘I have to hear his voice. Please, let me hear it for us.’ So, they put him on the line, and you know, all I could do was just thank God.”

“I’m a blessed man, 75 years of age,” said Aaron. “That day could have not come had it not been for God.”

Aaron and Gloria have been married for 47 years. Both are retired and enjoy spending time with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They said then and now, their thoughts are with those who weren’t so fortunate.