(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against two companies and an employee connected with the 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, World News Group reported. Dali, a 984-foot containership, crashed into the bridge in the early morning of March 26, 2024. The collapse killed six construction workers on the bridge and resulted in at least $5 billion in economic losses, according to the indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was “a preventable tragedy of enormous consequence,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release. He characterized the indictment as needed accountability for those who recklessly disregard marine safety.
Federal prosecutors charged Singapore’s Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., India’s Synergy Maritime, and an Indian national who worked for both companies as a technical supervisor with conspiring to defraud the United States. The indictment accused the three defendants of willfully failing to inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, obstructing an agency proceeding, and making false statements. The two corporations were also charged with misdemeanor violations of three federal statutes for releasing pollutants into the Patapsco River, including shipping containers, their contents, oil, and bridge debris.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators concluded in November that a loose electrical wire triggered blackouts on the ship before the impact. The indictment echoed those findings from the board and alleged that a loose wire in a high-voltage switchboard likely caused the power loss that caused the ship to drift out of the port and crash into the bridge. But the indictment alleged that Dali could have maneuvered to avoid the bridge if the ship’s design had not been changed.
Dali’s original design included automatic restart capabilities so that the ship could quickly regain power after a blackout. However, the companies altered the ship’s design and relied on a pump to supply fuel to half of Dali’s generators, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The flushing pumps the company added to Dali did not automatically restart after a power outage, leaving half the vessel’s generators without fuel and triggering the ultimately fatal blackout. If Dali had used the proper fuel pumps, the vessel would have regained power and safely avoided the bridge, the indictment alleged.
