Baltimore’s – The container ship Dali crashed into and destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March due to carelessness and risky cost-cutting measures, according to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against the ship’s owner and operator.
Six construction workers lost their lives in the disaster, which also destroyed a portion of Interstate 695 that the bridge crossed and caused months of port closures.
The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in Maryland on Wednesday, alleging that the ship’s owner and manager “sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways.”
Salvage crews remove wreckage from the Dali on May 8, six weeks after the cargo ship Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore’s. Six people died in the March 26 collapse. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Companies, not taxpayers, should pay, DOJ says
The government is suing two Singapore-based corporations, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, seeking more than $100 million in costs the U.S. incurred in responding to the disaster.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated in a news release that “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 defence infrastructure.”
Costs for the emergency reaction to the accident and the removal of almost 50,000 tonnes of steel and other materials to provide a temporary passage enabling ships to go to and from the port are included in the civil claim.
Garland stated that “the companies that caused the crash, not the American taxpayer,” should bear the expense of such damages.
The ship’s operator, Synergy, and owner, Grace Ocean, filed court documents attempting to limit their responsibility to less than $44 million.
The price of reconstructing the bridge is not included in the federal claim: According to the Justice Department, Maryland will seek its own reparations because it constructed and controlled the bridge.
