Amid the Baltimore Bridge mishap, an image showing a car submerged in a water body is doing rounds on social media site X(Twitter). Users are sharing this image relentlessly and claiming it to be from a recent catastrophic event.

An account by the name of Crazy Clips Viral shared this image along with the video of the disastrous recent incident and wrote: “#BREAKING Very Shocking visuals A cargo ship collided with the #Francis ScottBridge in Baltimore leads to its complete collapse, with multiple cars plunging into the water below and more than 20 people missing #Baltimore #Bridgecollapse #bridge”

Following this account, several accounts shared this image on X and made similar claims.

Fact-Check

To determine the reality of the above viral image, the DFRAC team reverse-searched it on Google. Meanwhile, the team found a media report by BBC dated Jan 1, 2022. The report stated: “A man has been taken to hospital after his car entered the River Roe near Dungiven, County Londonderry, on New Year’s Day. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said it used ropes to help him up an embankment off Magheramore Road just after 09:00 GMT. He had been able to get out of the car himself“.

Upon investigating further, we also discovered his image on the Facebook page of NIFRS west with the caption: “Fire crews from Dungiven & Limavady, supported by specialist crews from Crescent Link & Central Fire Stations responded to a vehicle in water incident this morning on the outskirts of Dungiven. The vehicle driver was rescued by the first attending crews and a subsequent systemic river search was undertaken until the PSNI confirmed that all vehicle occupants had been accounted for”. Moreover, the post is from Jan 1, 2022.

Conclusion

It is clear from DFRAC’s fact-check that the above viral image dates back to the year 2022 and is associated with the incident of a car entering the River Roe near Dungiven, a town in Northern Ireland. It has nothing to do with the recent Baltimore Bridge incident.

Hence, the claim of users is false.

Analysis: Misleading