BALTIMORE — The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the owner and manager of the Dali, the cargo ship that crashed into a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, killing six members of a road work crew.
The DOJ is suing the ship’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and the manager, Synergy Marine Group, saying, “This tragedy was entirely avoidable,” The Associated Press reported.
The company’s actions, according to the DOJ, were “outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless,” The New York Times reported.
The lawsuit said the Dali’s electrical and mechanical systems were not maintained correctly, allowing it to lose power and veer off course, hitting the Baltimore bridge, and causing it to collapse in March. The debris blocked the channel, limiting ship traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months. The channel was fully reopened in June. About 50,000 tons of debris had to be moved to open the river, the Times reported.
[ Key Bridge collapse: Dali was ‘unseaworthy’ before striking bridge, Baltimore officials say ]
The bridge still has to be rebuilt and it may take four years and $1.9 billion to replace it, Maryland officials said. The state is expected to recoup that cost also, the Times reported.
The Justice Department is seeking $100 million to pay for the cleanup, the port’s reopening and federal aid given to port employees who lost work over the incident, so the costs “are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
[ Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse: Dali refloated, docks at pier ]
“This accident happened because of the careless and grossly negligent decisions made by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send an unseaworthy vessel to navigate a critical waterway and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure,” acting deputy assistant attorney general Chetan Patil said.
The suit said the company had poor maintenance or “jury-rigged” systems to fix issues, adding that “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 Times reported.
[ Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse: Dali lost power twice before collision, NTSB says ]
Both Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine had filed petitions to limit their legal liability, the AP reported.
The families of three of the six men who were killed when the bridge collapsed said they are suing to hold the two companies liable. Other groups including city officials and local businesses have filed claims against the petition filed by the Singapore-based companies accusing them of negligence, the AP reported.