(Annapolis) The owners of the merchant ship who crashed on the Francis Scott Key bridge, in Baltimore, pursue the company that built the boat in court, alleging negligence in the design of the electrical panel, deemed essential.
Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine, owners of the Dalibrought legal action last week against Hyundai Heavy Industries before a Pennsylvania court.
“Due to a defective electrical panel, the ship underwent a power failure which led to the collision with the Key bridge,” alleges Grace Ocean Private in its complaint.
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) could not be joined immediately to comment. The judicial file does not mention the names of the legal representatives of Hyundai.
Grace Ocean Private argues that the electrical panel was poorly designed, so that the electrical connections were not secure. This defect, according to the company, “made the electrical panel and the ship excessively dangerous (…) when they left HHI control”.
“The defective manufacturing of the distribution table and the ship by HHI caused detachment of the signaling wiring in normal operation, which caused the power failure originally of the accident,” said the complaint.
THE Dali Leave Baltimore to Sri Lanka on March 26, 2018 when its steering system stopped operating following a power failure. He struck one of the bridge support columns, destroying the 2.5 -kilometer section and killing six members of a road works team. The port of Baltimore had to close for months.
Last year, the Department of Justice brought legal action aimed at recovering more than 100 million spent by the government to clean up the underwater debris and reopen the port of the city. The owner and the ship manager agreed to pay more than 102 million cleaning fees to pay the government’s dispute.
In this complaint, the Department of Justice accused the owner and the boat manager of having cut the round corners in an imprudent manner and of having ignored the known electrical problems of the ship. The Department of Justice notably accused the owner of the ship of not having taken any measures to remedy the “excessive vibrations” causing electrical problems.
The National Transport Security Council (NTSB) said in its preliminary report last year that the Dali had undergone power outages about 10 hours before leaving the port of Baltimore, then again shortly before hitting the bridge.
Last week, Maryland officials went to the site where the demolition teams use giant saws, shovelters and other heavy machines to remove large sections from the remaining parts of the bridge. The new bridge is expected to open in 2028.
