The owner and manager of the massive container ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March have agreed to pay nearly $102 million (€94 million) to resolve a civil claim brought by the US government.
The money will go toward covering the costs of the massive clean-up operation to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the channel and from the ship itself.
The 100,000-plus-ton ship, the MV Dali, slammed into the bridge in the early hours of March 26, as a work crew was fixing potholes.
Six construction workers died in the incident as the bridge went crumbling down into the water below. The nearly two dozen crew members on the boat survived.
The deadly crash stopped most maritime traffic for months at the busy port, which is one of the largest on the US East Coast.
Las month, the US Justice Department sued Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Ltd., and manager, Synergy Marine Group, both of which are based in Singapore, seeking to recover the costs of the sprawling emergency response to the disaster.
US seeking damages to cover costs of response
Officials from the US Justice Department hailed the settlement, but state officials are still working on their own case.
“Nearly seven months after one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory, which claimed six lives and caused untold damage, we have reached an important milestone with today’s settlement,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer said in a statement.
As part of the settlement, the Department of Justice agreed to drop its lawsuit, which had demanded a similar amount.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said last month that the costs of cleaning the channel ought to be borne “by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer.”
The civil suit does does not include any damages for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The state of Maryland has filed its own claim seeking those damages, officials said.
The civil lawsuit filed last month also provides one of the most detailed accounts of the failures that led to the ship’s short journey on the morning of March 26.
The Justice Department alleged in the suit that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, which was bound for Sri Lanka, were improperly maintained.
The ship subsequently lost power and veered off course before it struck a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
rm/zc (Reuters, AP, AFP)
