The U.S. Justice Department has sued the owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse. The suit filed Wednesday in Maryland against Grace Ocean and Synergy seeks to recover more than $100 million the government spent to respond to the disaster, clean up underwater debris and reopen the port. Other lawsuits, which will also involve insurance companies, will have to determine who pays for the construction of a new bridge and whether there should be compensation for the economic impact of the accident.
The 53-page lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that the electrical and mechanical systems of the Dali were not properly maintained, causing the ship to veer off course before crashing into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
“The owner and operator of the Dali “They were fully aware of the ship’s vibration problems that could cause a power outage. But instead of taking the necessary precautions, they did the opposite,” prosecutor Benjamin Mizer said in a statement. “Through negligence, mismanagement, and sometimes a desire to cut costs, they configured the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems in ways that prevented those systems from quickly restoring propulsion and steering after a power outage. As a result, when the ship was in the dock, the ship was unable to operate without a power outage. Dali “ran out of power, a series of cascading failures led to disaster,” he added.
In fact, the lawsuit specifically claims that none of the four media outlets that should have been available to help govern the Dali —the propeller, rudder, anchor or bow thruster—operated when necessary to avoid or mitigate disaster.
The Justice Department’s action also seeks punitive damages to serve as a warning. During a press call announcing the Justice Department’s actions, U.S. Attorney Chetan Patil explained, “This accident resulted from the reckless and grossly negligent decisions of Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly decided to send an unseaworthy vessel into a critical waterway and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure.”
The suit is part of a legal action that the ship’s owner and operator launched shortly after the tragedy, seeking to have their liability exonerated or limited to about $44 million. A spokesman for Grace Ocean told the Associated Press that the owner and operator had no comment at this time. “We look forward to our day in court to set the record straight,” they said.
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In the early hours of March 26, the Dali, The ship, a 1,000-foot-long, 160-foot-wide supercargo container ship, left the Port of Baltimore bound for the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo on April 22, on behalf of Danish shipping company Maersk. However, its voyage ended shortly after setting sail. While sailing through the Fort McHenry Channel, the ship lost power, regained power, and then lost power again before colliding with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge collapsed and plunged into the water, killing six people. The wreck and the remains of the bridge blocked the waterway and paralyzed all maritime traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore. The loss of the bridge also cut off a key highway, especially for local commuters.
Authorities managed to clear the navigation channel leading to the city’s port in the first half of June to its original operating dimensions of 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep (213 and 15 meters, respectively). Since March 26, when the bridge collapsed, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving have worked to remove the debris and free the supercargo ship Dali, which was wedged against the rubble. The ship was able to be moved to port on May 20.
The claim does not include damages for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The State of Maryland built, owned, maintained and operated the bridge, and attorneys on behalf of the State may file their own claim for those damages, the Justice Department said. Subsequently, in accordance with applicable law, funds recovered by the State of Maryland for the reconstruction of the bridge will be used to reduce the project costs paid by federal authorities.
The case comes a day after the families of the victims declared their intention to file a lawsuit to hold the ship’s owner and operator accountable for the disaster. Eight construction workers were working on the bridge when the accident occurred. Two of them survived the collapse. The bodies of two others were recovered the next day from inside a vehicle that sank with the bridge: Mexican Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Guatemalan Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26.
Then the bodies of Maynor Suazo, a 37-year-old Honduran married father of two, were found; Carlos Daniel Hernández, a Mexican, and Miguel Luna, a Salvadoran married father of three, who had lived in Maryland for more than 19 years, according to the CASA organization. Finally, a little over a month ago, rescue teams found the body of José Mynor López, a 37-year-old Guatemalan, the sixth victim of the accident.