Singapore-based owner, operator of ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse to pay US$102 million settlement
· CNA · JoinWASHINGTON: The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay US$102 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, officials said on Thursday (Oct 24).
"Nearly seven months after one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory, which claimed six lives and caused untold damage, we have reached an important milestone with today's settlement," Benjamin Mizer, a senior Justice Department official, said in a statement.
The settlement comes a month after the Justice Department sued Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore, seeking to recover funds the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port, which was closed to most maritime traffic for months after the deadly collapse.
The settlement does not include any damages for rebuilding the bridge, officials said in a news release announcing the agreement. The construction project could cost close to US$2 billion. The state of Maryland filed its own claim seeking those damages, officials said.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s clean-up efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Mizer said.
The Justice Department alleged that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, the Dali, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course before striking a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
The ship was leaving Baltimore for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss.
The Justice Department's lawsuit was brought as part of a legal action initiated by Grace Ocean and Synergy to limit their liability for the crash to US$44 million, a sum department officials called "woefully inadequate".
Six men on a road crew, who were filling potholes during an overnight shift, fell to their deaths. The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was fully opened in June.
The reopening required the removal of 50,000 tonnes of debris. More than 1,500 individual responders, along with 500 specialists from around the world, operated a fleet of boats during the operation, which involved 56 federal, state, and local agencies.
Grace Ocean and Synergy filed a court petition just days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history.
Court records show that the attorneys of both parties said in a joint filing on Thursday that they had reached a settlement agreement and requested dismissal of the Justice Department’s claim, which sought US$103 million in clean-up costs.
The claim is one of many filed in an expansive liability case that will ultimately determine how much the ship’s owner and manager will owe for their role in causing the disaster. The other claims are still unresolved.
They have been filed on behalf of the victims’ families, companies whose business has suffered as a result of the collapse, municipal entities and more.
FBI agents boarded the Dali in April amid a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.
When it was filed last month, the Justice Department civil claim provided the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures that left Dali’s pilots and crew helpless in the face of looming disaster. The complaint pointed to “excessive vibrations” on the ship that attorneys called a “well-known cause of transformer and electrical failure”.
Instead of dealing with the source of the excessive vibrations, crew members “jury-rigged” the ship, the complaint alleged.
It also noted cracked equipment in the engine room and pieces of cargo shaken loose. The ship’s electrical equipment was in such bad condition that an independent agency stopped further electrical testing because of safety concerns, according to the lawsuit.
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