Posted on November 25, 2024
The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than $100m to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, officials said Thursday.
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 more than $100m that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.
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 collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was fully opened in June.
The Independent has always had a global perspective. Built on a firm foundation of superb international reporting and analysis, The Independent now enjoys a reach that was inconceivable when it was launched as an upstart player in the British news industry. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, and across the world, pluralism, reason, a progressive and humanitarian agenda, and internationalism – Independent values – are under threat. Yet we, The Independent, continue to grow.
