Two companies, one Indian and the other from Singapore, and an Indian engineer have been accused of conspiring to defraud the United States and kill six construction workers in 2024. On March 26, 2024, a 900-foot container ship “Dali” registered in Singapore hit the bridge. Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, is the technical director of the Dali and has worked at Synergy Marine Pte Ltd in Singapore and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd in Chennai, India.The United States accuses the three entities of conspiracy, knowingly failing to immediately notify the U.S. Coast Guard of known hazardous conditions, obstructing agency procedures, and making false statements.The companies were also charged with misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act and the Garbage Act for discharging pollutants into the Patapsco River, including containers and their contents, oil and the bridge itself, the Justice Department said.
The United States says this is an avoidable tragedy
Acting Attorney General Todd Branch said the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was an avoidable tragedy with devastating consequences. Six construction workers died, critical infrastructure was destroyed, pollutants were released into the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay, and economic damage now exceeds $5 billion. The department is committed to delivering justice for victims and ensuring those responsible are held accountable.“
how the accident happened
The indictment said the Daly lost power twice within four minutes as it sailed out of the Port of Baltimore, causing it to hit a foundation bridge. Loose wires in the high-voltage switchboard can cause the first outage. Critical systems on Dali were originally designed with reliable redundancy and automatic restart capabilities so Dali can quickly restore power after an outage.But shortly after the ship regained power, it lost power again.According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly modified the ship and relied on flushing pumps to fuel two of the Dali’s four generators. However, the flushing pumps were not designed to automatically restart after a power outage, and the Dali’s generators were unable to operate without a fuel supply, so the ship eventually experienced a second blackout. The indictment states that if the Dali had used a proper fuel supply pump, the ship would have regained power in time and sailed safely under the Key Bridge.