The city of Baltimore is suing the owners of the cargo ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, alleging the container vessel was "unseaworthy" when it set sail on its fateful voyage.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, lawyers for the city blamed the owners and operators of the Dali for the disaster that killed six construction workers and shuttered one of the nation's busiest ports.
The Dali's owner, Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and its operator, Synergy Marine, have asked to limit liability to $43.6 million.
That figure doesn't capture the full scale of the damages caused by the bridge's collapse, the city says.
"For all intents and purposes, Petitioner's negligence caused them to destroy the Key Bridge, and single handedly destroy the Port of Baltimore, a source of jobs, municipal revenue and no small amount of pride for the city of Baltimore and its residents," the city said.
Thousands of ships had passed under the bridge each year without incident before the March 26 disaster, Baltimore noted, alleging the Dali's owners and crew were "incompetent" and "reckless."
“For more than four decades, cargo ships made thousands of trips every year under the Key Bridge without incident,” the city alleges. “There was nothing about March 26, 2024 that should have changed that.”
The bridge collapsed when the ship reportedly lost power and crashed into one of the bridge's support columns. The mostly Indian crew was not trained properly and was "inattentive to its duties," Baltimore said, alleging there were clear problems with the power supply before the ship left port.
"Reporting has indicated that, even before leaving port, alarms showing inconsistent power supply on the Dali had sounded," the city alleged. "The Dali left port anyways despite its clearly unseaworthy condition."
A month later, the cleanup continues, the port has yet to reopen, and the FBI is pursuing a criminal probe.
Investigators are interviewing the ship's crew members, who all survived, about what they knew before the crash.
“The FBI is present aboard the cargo ship Dali conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” the agency said in a statement.
Rebuilding the bridge could cost nearly half a billion dollars, and construction could take years to complete.
