The Dali misplaced energy whereas leaving the port of Baltimore for Sri Lanka and struck the bridge. (File)

Washington:

The US Justice Division filed a lawsuit on Wednesday searching for greater than $100 million from the Singapore proprietor and operator of a cargo ship that destroyed a Baltimore bridge.

The 1,000-foot (300-meter) M/V Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, killing six highway employees and blocking the busy delivery channel.

The civil swimsuit in opposition to Grace Ocean Non-public and Synergy Marine Non-public was filed within the US District Courtroom for the District of Maryland.

“The Justice Division is dedicated to making sure accountability for these answerable for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement.

“With this civil declare, the Justice Division is working to make sure that the prices of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the businesses that brought on the crash, not by the American taxpayer.”

The Justice Division mentioned the swimsuit is geared toward recovering greater than $100 million in prices incurred in responding to the catastrophe and for eradicating tons of bridge particles.

The Dali misplaced energy whereas leaving the port of Baltimore for Sri Lanka and struck the bridge.

Principal Deputy Affiliate Lawyer Basic Benjamin Mizer mentioned the proprietor and operator of the Dali had been “effectively conscious of vibration points on the vessel that might trigger an influence outage.

“However as an alternative of taking essential precautions, they did the other.

“Out of negligence, mismanagement, and, at instances, a need to chop prices, they configured the ship’s electrical and mechanical programs in a manner that prevented these programs from having the ability to shortly restore propulsion and steering after an influence outage,” Mizer mentioned.

“Because of this, when the Dali misplaced energy, a cascading set of failures led to catastrophe.”

The Justice Division swimsuit comes after Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine filed a authorized motion of their very own earlier this 12 months searching for to restrict their legal responsibility to $44 million.

The Justice Division lawsuit doesn’t search damages for the eventual prices of rebuilding the bridge. That’s anticipated to be the topic of a separate declare from the state of Maryland.

The households of the six highway employees who misplaced their lives are additionally pursuing authorized claims of their very own.

The Fort McHenry channel resulting in the port of Baltimore, a key hub for the auto business, reopened to business navigation on June 10.

(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)