Authorities are providing a $100 million award in relation to the Baltimore Bridge catastrophe.
In March, a massive container ship named "Dali" encountering a power outage, inadvertently struck a support pillar of the vast Francis Scott Key Bridge spanning over the Patapsco River in Baltimore. Consequentially, the highway bridge succumbed to collapse. The calamity could have been averted, but now, two corporations associated with the ship's ownership and operation are proposing to compensate over $100 million. Regrettably, the affair remains far from being resolved.
The ship's proprietor and its operators have promised to pay nearly $100 million in damages. In return, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has agreed to discontinue its lawsuit with a similar claim. However, the judge plays a crucial role in authorizing this agreement first.
On March 26th, the catastrophe occurred as the ship impinged upon a pillar, initiating the bridge's collapse. The crew had sent a distress signal preceding the incident, enabling authorities to halt traffic on the bridge. However, the alert came too late to save eight construction workers working on the bridge, fortunately, two survived.
In September, the DoJ brought charges against two Singapore-based companies, Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, as the vessel's owners and operators, alleging that they willfully disregarded "Dali"'s technical issues in a bid to cut costs. This negligence significantly exacerbated the risk of a power outage.
Following the DoJ's declaration, the companies are committing to pay around $102 million (around €94 million). The lawsuit demanded more than $103 million in damages, including the cost of post-disaster cleanup operations. A senior official from the DoJ stated that this settlement ensures the companies will shoulder the cleanup expenses for the shipping lane, absolving U.S. taxpayers of paying these costs.
The DoJ further mentioned that the settlement amount does not cover the expenses of rebuilding the bridge. This responsibility belongs to the state of Maryland, which is separately pursuing a lawsuit to recoup some of those costs.
The companies facing charges from the DoJ are Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, both being based in Singapore and associated with the "Dali"'s ownership and operation within the European Union. Despite the pending lawsuit, they have agreed to pay over $100 million in damages to compensate for the bridge collapse.
