Boat owner to pay $102 million lawsuit!
Washington, Oct 24 (EFE).-
The United States Department of Justice announced Thursday it has reached a settlement of nearly 102 million dollars with the owner and operator of the ship that crashed into the Baltimore Bridge to resolve a civil lawsuit brought by the government for costs incurred by the collapse of that infrastructure.
In a release, the Department of Justice said that Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, both from Singapore, agreed to pay 101.9 million dollars.
The funds will go to the Department of the Treasury and the budgets of several federal agencies directly involved in responding to the incident.
The cargo ship DALI, a 300-metre-long Singapore-registered vessel, was leaving the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka when it collided with one of the piers in the central section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River in the early hours of Mar. 26.
Six workers carrying out maintenance on the bridge were killed in the collapse. The victims included two Mexicans, two Guatemalans, one Honduran, and one Salvadoran.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.
The US mobilized federal, state, and local authorities to remove some 50,000 tons of steel, concrete, and asphalt from the canal and the DALI.
On Sep. 18, the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Maryland seeking approximately 103 million dollars in damages. According to Thursday’s statement, the settlement does not cover the costs of the bridge reconstruction.
The access channel to the Port of Baltimore, which is 700 feet (213 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) deep, was fully cleared by Jun. 10 and has since been used to restore marine traffic to pre-accident levels.
The bridge reconstruction is expected to take about four years to complete, with costs estimated between 1.7 billion dollars and 1.9 billion dollars, according to updates from local authorities in May. EFE
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