Telegraph Reporters
18 September 2024 4:38pm
The US government is suing the owner of the container ship that struck and destroyed the iconic Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March.
The Department of Justice announced on Thursday it was pursuing a civil negligence case against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy, the owner and operator of the Dali ship.
The department says the tragedy, which killed six, was “avoidable” and is calling for the companies to pay $100 million in cleanup costs.
In a briefing on Thursday, lawyers for the government told reporters that the two companies were “prioritising profit over safety” and that they, “not the American taxpayer” should cover the costs of the disaster.
The bridge, which had stood since 1972, collapsed entirely after it was struck by the Dali in the night on March 26.
The accident occurred when the ship lost power shortly after leaving Baltimore Port, one of the US East Coast’s largest container hubs and drifted to the side of the channel.
Six workers who were on the bridge fell into the water and died. Some bodies were not recovered for days as investigators and rescue teams dug through the mangled wreckage of the bridge in the water.
In court documents filed by the DOJ, the government’s lawyers said both an officer and a captain of the ship had previously reported issues to Synergy, the operator. They said it should have come as “no surprise” that the power outage tripped the ship’s circuit breakers, preventing it from stopping.
They said negligence by both companies had caused a “cascading series of failures” that resulted in the bridge’s collapse.
The issues included that the ship’s emergency generator did not activate within 45 seconds, as required by US maritime safety law. The ship took more than a minute to regain power, then lost it again.
“As events unfolded, and because of the unseaworthy condition of the ship, none of the four means available to help control the Dali – her propeller, rudder, anchor, or bow thruster – worked when they were needed to avert or even mitigate this disaster,” the lawsuit said.
“This second power failure was caused by Petitioners’ decision – made to save money and for their own convenience – to use a ‘flushing’ pump to fuel the diesel generators that made the ship’s electricity,” it adds.
The government is also arguing that the companies’ claim for limited liability, filed in the aftermath of the disaster, are not valid under maritime law.
The DOJ is seeking punitive damages it says will partially recover the cost of the cleanup operation, and discourage companies from breaking safety regulations in future.
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