A merchant ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, disrupting shipping traffic for months.
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the Singapore-based companies whose cargo ship destroyed a bridge near Baltimore earlier this year, shutting down one of the largest U.S. ports for months.
The container ship MV Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the evening of March 26, killing six highway workers and collapsing the main thoroughfare built in 1977.
“With this civil lawsuit, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of cleaning up the canal and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the accident, not the American taxpayer.” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday.
The Justice Department is suing Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, both based in Singapore and owners and operators of the Dali. Shortly after the accident, the two companies decided to limit their liability to about $44 million. The U.S. government is seeking at least $100 million, plus punitive damages.
The US government wants to recoup the costs of clearing debris from the bridge, reopening the canal to shipping and dealing with the “substantial risk of oil contamination.” Federal, state and local agencies had to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt and clean up “a series of temporary channels to begin to alleviate the bottleneck at the port and mitigate some of the economic devastation” caused by the shipwreck. The Fort McHenry channel was not fully reopened until June 10.
“This was an entirely avoidable catastrophe, the result of a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Brian Boynton.
According to the Justice Department, after the Dali left the port of Baltimore, the ship “I lost power, I regained power, and then I lost power again” before hitting the bridge. Benjamin Mizer, the principal deputy attorney general, accused the owner and operator of knowing that “vibration problems” It could cause a power outage, but they do nothing to fix it.
“Through negligence, mismanagement and, at times, a desire to cut costs, they configured the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems in a way that prevented those systems from being able to quickly restore propulsion and steering after a power loss.” Mizer said.
As a result, the Dali's propeller, rudder, anchor and bow thruster were unable to steer the ship when needed.
The U.S. claim does not address the funds needed to rebuild the bridge. Since Maryland built, owned, maintained and operated the bridge, it is up to that state to file its own claim.
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