Justice Department sues over Baltimore bridge collapse and seeks $100M in cleanup costs

BALTIMORE -- The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel, the Justice Department alleged Wednesday in a lawsuit seeking to recover more than $100 million that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.

The lawsuit filed in Maryland provides the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures on the Dali that left the vessel’s pilots and crew completely helpless in the face of looming disaster.

The Justice Department alleges that mechanical and electrical systems on the massive container ship had been “jury-rigged” and improperly maintained, culminating in a horrific power outage moments before it crashed into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Six construction workers were killed when the bridge plunged into the water.

“This tragedy was entirely avoidable,” if not for the companies’ decision to place an “ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel,” says the lawsuit against Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore.

Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for Grace Ocean, said the owner and manager had no comment at this time, but “look forward to our day in court to set the record straight.”

Justice Department officials refused to answer questions Wednesday about whether a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse remains ongoing. FBI agents boarded the vessel in April amid a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the catastrophe.

The ship was leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka when its steering failed because of the power loss. Six members of a road work crew on the bridge were killed in the collapse. The men were working an overnight shift filling potholes on the bridge deck when it suddenly crumbled beneath them, sending them tumbling into the water.

The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was fully opened in June.

The companies filed a court petition days after the collapse seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive marine casualty case in history. Justice Department officials said there is no legal support for the companies’ bid to limit their legal liability and they would vigorously contest it.

“With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in written statement.

The case comes a day after the victims’ families declared their intent to file a claim seeking to hold the ship’s owner and manager fully liable for the disaster. Several other interested parties, including city officials and local businesses, have filed opposing claims accusing the companies of negligence.

Documents released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed investigators’ discovery of a loose cable on the ship that, when disconnected, triggered an electrical blackout similar to what happened as it approached the bridge on March 26.

But the Dali had already been experiencing power issues in the hours before the collapse. The first blackout occurred when it was still docked in Baltimore after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance, causing one of its diesel engines to stall, according to safety investigators. Crew members then made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching from one transformer and breaker system — which had been in use for several months — to a second that was active upon its departure. That second transformer and breaker system is where investigators found the loose cable.

The Justice Department complaint points 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, they “jury-rigged” the ship, the Justice Department alleges.

The complaint notes cracked equipment in the engine room pieces of cargo being shaken loose. Inspectors have found loose bolts, nuts, and washers and broken electrical cable ties, the Justice Department says. The state of the ship's electrical equipment was so bad that an independent testing agency stopped further electrical testing because of safety concerns, according to the lawsuit.

“In sum, 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,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan A. Patil.

When that transformer and breaker system failed, power should have automatically transferred to the ship’s other transformer within seconds, the lawsuit says, “but this automation, a safety feature tailor made for the occasion at hand, had been recklessly disabled.” Instead, the ship’s engineers had to manually restore power, which took a full minute, according to the complaint.

Power was momentarily restored, but it again switched off because of a problem with the ship’s fuel pumps, which resulted from a cost-cutting measure, the Justice Department alleges.

The anchor wasn’t able to be immediately deployed and the bow thruster was unavailable in the critical moments when the ship’s pilots were desperately trying to avoid disaster, according to the complaint.

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Richer reported from Washington.