Justice Department Files $100 Million Claim in Fatal Baltimore Bridge Collapse

The U.S. Justice Department filed a legal claim on Wednesday against the owner and operator of the container ship that collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge last March, killing six workers and paralyzing the Port of Baltimore for weeks.

The lawsuit asserts that the companies’ actions leading up to the catastrophe were “outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless.”

The government is seeking more than $100 million in damages to cover the costs of the sprawling emergency response to the disaster and the federal aid to port employees who were put out of work.

“Those costs should be borne by the shipowner and operator, not the American taxpayer,” said Benjamin Mizer, the department’s third-ranking official, who oversees the civil division among others. He added that the department would be seeking punitive damages as well, “to try to keep this type of conduct from ever happening again.”

The action on Wednesday did not name an amount for the punitive damages the department was seeking.

Filed in federal court in Maryland, the Justice Department’s action lays out in detail what investigators have learned about the ship’s short and catastrophic journey that night, describing a cascade of failures onboard and multiple points when the disaster could have been prevented.

Because of poor maintenance or “jury-rigged” fixes to serious problems aboard the ship, known as the Dali, “none of the four means available to help control the Dali — her propeller, rudder, anchor, or bow thruster — worked when they were needed to avert or even mitigate this disaster,” the suit asserts.