BALTIMORE — The owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused the disaster the collapse of the Baltimore Bridge recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the ship, the Justice Department alleged Wednesday in a lawsuit seeking to recoup more than $100 million the government spent to clean up underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.
The lawsuit filed in Maryland provides the most detailed account yet of the Dali’s successive failures, leaving the ship’s pilots and crew helpless to confront the impending disaster.
The Justice Department alleges that mechanical and electrical systems on the massive container ship were “jury rigged” and improperly maintained, resulting in a horrific power outage just before the ship struck a support on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Six construction workers were killed when the bridge collapsed into the water.
“This tragedy was entirely preventable” if the companies had not decided to place “an ill-prepared crew on a completely unsuitable vessel,” according to the lawsuit against Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore.
Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for Grace Ocean, said the owner and manager had no comment at this time but “look forward to our day in court to make things right.”
Justice Department officials declined to answer questions Wednesday about whether a criminal investigation into the bridge collapse was still ongoing. FBI agents boarded the ship in April, during a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading to the disaster.
The ship was leaving Baltimore for Sri Lanka when the ship lost steering control due to the loss of power. Six members of a road crew on the bridge were killed in the collapse. The men were working a night shift filling holes in the bridge deck when it suddenly collapsed beneath them, throwing them into the water.
The collapse disrupted commercial shipping through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was closed. was fully opened in June.
The companies filed a petition with the court several days after the collapse to limit their legal liability in what could become the most expensive maritime accident case in history. Justice Department officials said there was no legal support for the companies’ bid to limit their legal liability and that they would vigorously fight it.
“With this civil action, the Department of Justice is seeking to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, and not by American taxpayers,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a written statement.
The case comes a day after the families of the victims their intention explained to file a claim to hold the ship’s owner and manager fully liable for the disaster. Several other interested partiesincluding city officials and local businesses, have filed counterclaims accusing the companies of negligence.
Documents released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board show that investigators found a loose cable on the ship. When it was disconnected, it caused a power outage similar to what happened when the ship approached the bridge on March 26.
But the Dali had already been experiencing power problems in the hours before it collapsed. The first outage occurred while the ship was still docked in Baltimore after a crew member accidentally closed an exhaust valve while performing maintenance, causing one of the diesel engines to stall, safety investigators said. Crew members then made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching from one transformer and fuse system — which had been in use for several months — to a second that was active when they left. That second transformer and fuse system is where investigators found the loose cable.
The Justice Department’s complaint points to “excessive vibrations” on the ship, which lawyers call a “known cause of transformer and electrical failures.” Instead of addressing the source of the excessive vibrations, they have “manipulated” the ship, the Justice Department alleges.
The complaint cites cracked equipment in the engine room, pieces of cargo that had shaken loose. Inspectors found loose nuts, bolts and washers and broken cable ties, the Justice Department said. The condition of the ship’s electrical equipment was so poor that an independent testing agency halted further electrical testing due to safety concerns, the lawsuit said.
“In short, this accident occurred because of the careless and grossly negligent decisions of Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly decided to send an unseaworthy vessel through a critical waterway and disregarded the risks to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure,” said Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan A. Patil.
When that transformer and its circuit breaker system failed, power should have been automatically transferred to the ship’s other transformer within seconds, the lawsuit says, “but this automation, a safety feature specifically designed for the situation, was recklessly disabled.” Instead, the ship’s engineers had to manually restore power, which took a full minute, the complaint says.
Power was temporarily restored, but then went out again due to a problem with the ship’s fuel pumps, a cost-cutting measure, the Justice Department said.
According to the complaint, the anchor could not be dropped immediately and the bow thruster was unavailable at critical moments when the ship’s pilots were desperately trying to avert disaster.
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Richer reported from Washington.