In 2024, a 900-foot ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Dalry, Maryland. Six employees were killed.
Two companies, one Indian and the other from Singapore, and an Indian engineer have been accused of conspiring to defraud the US and cause the deaths of six construction workers in 2024. On March 26, 2024, Dali, a 900-foot container ship registered in Singapore, collided with a bridge and crashed. Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, who was Dali’s technical superintendent, worked at both Singapore-based Synergy Marine Pte Ltd and Chennai, India-based Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd.The US accused the three entities of conspiracy, willful failure to promptly notify the US Coast Guard of a known dangerous situation, obstruction of agency proceedings, and making false statements.The Justice Department said both companies have been charged with violations of the Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act and Refusal Act for discharging pollutants into the Patapsco River, including from shipping containers and their contents, oil and the bridge.
US says it was a preventable tragedy
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch said the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was a preventable tragedy of large scale. Six construction workers lost their lives, critical infrastructure was destroyed, pollutants were released into the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay, and economic damages now exceed five billion dollars. The department is committed to providing justice to the victims and ensuring action against those responsible.“
how did the accident happen
According to the indictment, the Dali lost power twice in four minutes while heading out to sea from the Port of Baltimore, causing it to crash into the Key Bridge. A loose wire in a high-voltage switchboard probably caused the first power loss. Critical systems on DALI were originally designed with reliable redundancy and automatic restart capabilities, so that DALI could quickly regain power after a blackout.But shortly after the ship’s power was restored, it lost power again.According to the indictment, the accused allegedly altered the vessel and relied on a flushing pump to supply fuel to two of Dali’s four generators. However, the flushing pumps were not designed to restart automatically after a blackout, and Dali’s generators could not operate without a fuel supply, so the ship eventually experienced a second blackout. The indictment alleged that if Dali had used the proper fuel supply pumps, the ship would have received power in time to navigate safely under the Key Bridge.