By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday a grand jury indicted two foreign operators and a shoreside superintendent in the March 2024 collision of the 984-foot cargo ship Dali that destroyed Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and killed six construction workers.
The Justice Department said the collision caused at least $5 billion in damage and significant environmental damage. The National Transportation Safety Board found a single loose wire in the electrical system caused a breaker to unexpectedly open, launching a sequence of events that led to two vessel blackouts and a loss of propulsion and steering.
Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd, based in Chennai, India, along with Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, an Indian national who worked for both companies as the technical superintendent for the Dali, are charged with conspiracy, willfully failing to immediately inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and false statements.
Prosecutors said Nair is believed to be in India.
The companies and individual were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and with causing the death of six construction workers on the bridge, among other charges.
The companies and Nair are also charged with providing false statements and documents to the NTSB.
The two Synergy corporations are also charged with violations of the Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, and Refuse Act for the discharge of pollutants into the Patapsco River.
According to the indictment, the Dali lost power twice in a four-minute span, as it was leaving the Port of Baltimore, causing it to crash into the Key Bridge.
The Justice Department said the defendants are accused of relying on a flushing pump to supply fuel to two of the Dali’s four generators but the flushing pump was not designed to automatically restart following a blackout, and the Dali’s generators could not operate without a fuel supply.
The indictment alleged that if the Dali was using proper fuel supply pumps, the vessel would have regained power in time to safely navigate under the bridge.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Andrea Ricci )
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