The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that criminal charges have been filed against the operator of the cargo ship Dali and against an employee, accusing them of irregularities related to the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that occurred on March 26, 2024.
That day the motor vessel Dali, a 900-foot-long foreign-flag container ship registered in Singapore, collided with the bridge. The DOJ said that the formal indictment alleges economic loss in this case amounting to, at least, $5 billion.
The formal indictment was made public on May 12; there, prosecutors charged Synergy Marine Group and an employee with counts of conspiracy, obstruction, and misconduct with resulting death.
They asserted that this accident could have been avoided and that the crew acted recklessly.
“The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was an avoidable tragedy of enormous consequences,” said acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This formal indictment marks a crucial step in holding to account those whose reckless disregard for maritime safety regulations caused this disaster. Six construction workers lost their lives, critical infrastructure was destroyed, pollutants were released into the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay, and the economic damages already exceed five billion dollars. This Department is committed to delivering justice to the victims and ensuring that those responsible are held to account,” he added.
According to the formal indictment, the Dali suffered two power losses within four minutes while sailing in open sea from the Port of Baltimore, causing it to strike the bridge. The indictment states that a loose cable in a high-voltage distribution panel was probably the cause of the first power loss. The Dali’s critical systems had been originally designed with reliable redundancies and automatic restart capabilities so the vessel could recover power quickly after an outage.
However, shortly after the vessel recovered power, it lost it again.
According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly modified the vessel and used a wash pump to supply fuel to two of the Dali’s four generators.
However, that wash pump was not designed to automatically restart after a power outage, and given that the Dali’s generators could not operate without a fuel supply, the vessel ended up suffering a second outage.
The indictment claims that, had the proper fuel-supply pumps been used, the Dali would have recovered power in time to navigate safely under the Key Bridge.
Synergy and Nair have also been charged with obstructing an administrative proceeding and with submitting false statements and documents to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) while it conducted an investigation into the accident.
The obstruction charges relate, among other things, to Nair’s statements to the NTSB, in which he claimed to be unaware that the Dali was using the wash pump to supply fuel to the generators.
The charges were announced during a press conference aboard the NS Savannah, a ship docked in southeast Baltimore overlooking the remains of the bridge.
