[Baltimore Sun] Construction company that employed Key Bridge victims sues Dali owner, manager
Read Time:4 Minute, 22 Second
The employer of the six workers who were filling potholes when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed filed a claim against the Singaporean companies behind the massive container ship that felled the span.
Brawner Builders Inc., of Hunt Valley, alleges that Grace Ocean Private Ltd., owner of the 984-foot Dali, and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., the vessel’s manager, negligently allowed an unseaworthy ship to depart March 26 on a doomed voyage.
“This tragedy was preventable,” attorneys for Brawner wrote. “Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine PTE, Ltd.’s actions and decision to put an unseaworthy vessel into the water led to the collapse of the Key Bridge and deaths of the Brawner employees, and damaging the property of Brawner.”
Brawner filed the claim Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, asking a federal judge to reject the Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine’s request to limit their liability in the bridge collapse to the salvage value of the ship plus the revenue it stood to make from its cargo, which the companies estimated at $43.7 million.
Within a week of the deadly crash, the Singaporean companies sought protection under the federal Limitation of Liability Act of 1851. They also hired a lobbying firm to fight against proposed changes to the 19th century law in Congress.
The more than 100,000-ton Dali departed the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal in the early morning of March 26, but didn’t make it very far before it experienced two complete power outages, or blackouts, rendering the ship adrift within about half a mile of the bridge.
Without steering or propulsion, the Dali momentum sent it into one of the Key Bridge’s critical support columns, immediately collapsing the 1.2-mile span and sending seven Brawner Builders workers plummeting into the frigid waters of the Patapsco River.
Six men died, while a seventh survived the fall. An inspector with Eborn Enterprises, Inc., according to Brawners’ complaint, was able to escape to part of the bridge that survived the crash.
It took authorities more than a month to recover the bodies of Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, Jose Minor Lopez, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Alejandro “Alex” Hernandez Fuentes, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval and Carlos Hernandez from the mess of steel and concrete tangled at the bottom of the shipping channel.
“In addition to losing the invaluable lives of its employees, Brawner lost equipment and vehicles which was being used for the repairs and maintenance being performed on the Key Bridge at the time of its collapse,” Brawners’ attorneys wrote. “Brawner is seeking to recover … the financial impacts from the loss of six beloved employees and the injuries to one beloved employee, the loss of multiple vehicles, the loss of various equipment additions to the vehicles, and the loss of other equipment and tools that fell from the Key Bridge due to the allision.”
Crews continue remove debris and wreckage around the container ship Dali at the site of the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in this file photo. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)
A spokesman for Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Brawners’ claim came alongside a bombshell claim filed Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Dali’s owner and manager.
Taking from its own investigation into what went wrong aboard the Dali, the Justice Department cited longstanding problems with the ship’s transformer, a critical component of the ship’s electrical system that converts high-voltage power to lower voltage-power.
The Dali’s transformer, the department’s claim said, had “long suffered the effects of heavy vibrations” and had been “retrofitted” with braces, one of which had “cracked over time, had been repaired with welds, and had cracked again.” The vibration was so “constant,” the suit alleges, that it caused “cargo lashings above the engineering spaces to work loose.”
Justice Department attorneys wrote that a “metal cargo hook” had been “wedged” between the transformer and a steel beam “in a makeshift attempt to limit vibration.”
All claims must be filed in the case by Sept. 24.
Previous claims filed against the companies behind the Dali by the likes of the city of Baltimore and businesses impacted by the collapse, which interrupted operations at the bustling port, took from investigative updates released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
NTSB investigators determined that the Dali also experienced blackouts while at its berth in the port about 10 hours before it set sail.
The in-port blackouts, or total power losses, led crew members to switch breakers for the ship’s electrical power system, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report on the Key Bridge collapse. The replacement breakers tripped shortly after it departed, causing the first of two complete power losses as it approached the bridge.
More recently, the federal safety investigators have narrowed their probe to an electrical component about the diameter of a soda can. The NTSB brought in representatives from the ship’s Korean manufacturer, Hyundai, to analyze the device, identifying a loose cable connection related to the component in the process.
Baltimore Sun reporter Hayes Gardner contributed to this article.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0