A view of the Dali and the remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the March 26 crash that destroyed the bridge and closed the Port of Baltimore. Screenshots from National Transportation Safety Board video.
The Justice Department said Wednesday it is suing the owners of the cargo ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, seeking $100 million for the cost of cleaning up the debris and unspecified punitive damages.
The civil lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, said Grace Ocean Private Limited, the owner of the container ship Dali, “sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to … cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure. Those responsible for the vessel must be held fully accountable for the catastrophic harm they caused.”
The suit goes on to say that punitive damages “should be imposed to deter such misconduct” in the future.
The allision in the early morning hours of March 26 killed six workers who were on the bridge, shut down traffic to and from the Port of Baltimore for months and destroyed the span over the Patapsco River.
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“The Justice Department is committed to ensuring accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which resulted in the tragic deaths of six people and disrupted our country’s transportation and defense infrastructure,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “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.”
The crash occurred when the fully loaded Dali lost power on its way out of the Port of Baltimore. The 985-foot ship, weighing 95,000 gross tons, slammed into a bridge tower. The impact caused the center span of the bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River.
Six of the eight workers who were on the bridge at the time and blocking shipping lanes in and out of the port.
The lawsuit seeks damages from Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singaporean corporations that own and operate the Dali.
The lawsuit said the power outage was caused by excessive vibrations that caused power cables to come loose on the ship. It said the owners and operators of the ship knew of the vibration problems, but jury-rigged low-cost solutions that failed when needed, and that a series of other shortcuts led to a “cascading series of failures” that resulted in the crash.
This story will be updated.