The Justice Department is suing the operator of a cargo ship that caused the fatal collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
DOJ’s civil claim, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, seeks $100 million in damages for the costs the federal government incurred in responding to the disaster, which killed six workers and closed one of the nation’s largest shipping hubs for weeks.
“As we outline in our claim,” said Benjamin Mizer, head of DOJ’s civil division, in remarks Wednesday morning, “this catastrophe was entirely avoidable.”
Mizer added that the costs of the bridge collapse should be shouldered by the owner and operator of the Dali, the container vessel that caused the incident, and he said that the government would also pursue punitive damages to “try to keep this type of conduct from ever happening again.”
DOJ did not specify the amount of punitive damages it plans to seek.
A spokesperson for Synergy Marine Group and Grace Ocean Private, the manager and owner of the Dali, said that the companies had anticipated DOJ’s claim because the court had put a Sept. 24 deadline on all such filings.
“The owner and manager will have no further comment on the merits of any claim at this time, but we do look forward to our day in court to set the record straight,” said Darrell Wilson, the spokesperson for the companies.
In legal filings, the companies asked the Maryland District Court to limit their liability in the case to less than $44 million.
DOJ countered in its claim that the companies sent an “ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways.”
“They did so to reap the benefit of conducting business in American ports,” DOJ continued. “Yet they cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure.”
DOJ did not provide further information on a federal criminal investigation of the bridge collapse.
The Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning of March 26, causing large pieces of the structure to fall into the Patapsco River. Crew on the ship had notified authorities that the vessel had lost power, allowing officials time to stop the flow of traffic onto the bridge.
Construction workers were in the midst of repairs on the bridge at the time of the collision. Officials said they were “basically repairing potholes” that had nothing to do with structural issues.
Families of three of the six construction workers killed in the incident have said they also plan to sue the owner of the Dali.
None of the crew members on the Dali were injured in the collision.
In a June 27 press release, Synergy Marine said the ship had arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, for temporary repair work. The vessel, which was loaded with 4,700 cargo containers carrying materials including corrosive chemicals and lithium-ion batteries, had been heading for Sri Lanka.
