Washington, Sep 18 (EFE).- The United States government filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the two companies that own the ship that caused the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore last March.
The lawsuit seeks to force the Singapore-based companies to pay more than $100 million in compensation for the costs of “disaster response and wreck cleanup,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
A ship owned by Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine PTE LTD struck the Francis Scott Bridge in the coastal city of Baltimore in late March, causing it to collapse and killing six construction workers who were carrying out repair work on the road.
“With this civil lawsuit, the Department of Justice is working to ensure that the costs of cleaning up the canal and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the accident, not the American taxpayer,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the statement.
The lawsuit, filed in a Maryland court, accuses the companies responsible for the ship of acting “negligently” by failing to address various technical problems with the vessel that ultimately led to the accident.
“This was an entirely preventable catastrophe, the result of a series of eminently foreseeable errors made by the owner and operator of the DALI vessel,” said Brian M. Boynton, one of the prosecutors in charge of the case.
Shortly after the accident, Grace Ocean filed a lawsuit asking a judge in Maryland to limit the company’s liability to the value of the ship, which it estimates at about $42.5 million.
The Justice Department’s appeal in this case was filed in opposition to the company’s claims.
With this lawsuit, the federal government joins the city of Baltimore, which filed another suit against the companies that own the ship last April.
Relatives of the six people killed in the accident, all of them Latin American migrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, have also already indicated that they will file their own lawsuits against the companies.
At a press conference on Tuesday, the widow of Miguel Luna, one of the workers who died in the accident, said she will seek justice in the case on behalf of “all essential workers.” EFE
