The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a $100 million claim against the Singapore-based owners and operators of the container vessel that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
The DOJ filed the claim on September 18 against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, demanding that the companies cover the costs incurred from responding to and clearing the wreckage of the bridge. The Dali container ship slammed into the Key Bridge on March 26, killing six maintenance workers and destroying the span that sits at the entrance to Baltimore’s main shipping channel.
“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” said U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland. “With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer.”
According to the DOJ, federal, state and local agencies removed an estimated 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the wreckage of the bridge. Crews also created a series of temporary shipping channels to allow smaller vessels to continue calling the Port of Baltimore while the main channel remained closed. The primary shipping channel eventually reopened on June 10.
A report from the National Transportation Safety Board released in May found that the Dali had experienced multiple electrical blackouts in the hours before it left the Port of Baltimore, before experiencing another blackout just over a half mile before it reached the Key Bridge, stopping its propeller and preventing its rudder from moving. In its claim, the DOJ alleged that the owners and operators of the Dali cut corners on configuring the ship’s electrical and mechanical systems to save money, which made it so those systems couldn’t come back online in time to avoid the collision with the bridge.
“This was an entirely avoidable catastrophe, resulting from a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the Dali,” deputy assistant attorney general Brian Boynton said.
