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Cargo ship crews can leave US under deal to comply with investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse

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Cargo ship crews can leave US under deal to comply with investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse

BALTIMORE (AP) — Crew members of the cargo ship Dali can go home as early as Thursday under an agreement that allows attorneys to question them as part of an investigation into the cause of the deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

None of the crew have been able to leave the US since their ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns on March 26.

Under the agreement, which was confirmed during a hearing Thursday by U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar, the crew can return home but must be available for depositions.

Lawyers had asked the judge on Tuesday to prevent the approximately twenty crew members – all from India or Sri Lanka – from leaving. According to the emails in the lawsuits, eight crew members of the Dali were returning home.

In the lawsuits, attorneys representing the city of Baltimore say the men should remain in the U.S. so they can be deposed in an ongoing civil lawsuit to decide who is responsible for the costs and damages resulting from the bridge collapse. Six construction workers were killed and most maritime traffic through Baltimore’s busy port was temporarily halted.

“The crew consists entirely of foreigners who obviously have critical knowledge and information about the events that gave rise to this lawsuit,” attorneys wrote. “If they are allowed to leave the United States, plaintiffs may never have the opportunity to question or depose them.”

Attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., who represents plaintiff Damon Davis, said the lawsuit over the bridge collapse “may be the most expensive maritime case in the history of the world.”

“Everyone is paying close attention to the details so that we can unravel all aspects of this and arrive at a fair outcome,” Murphy said.

Seven attorneys represented the federal government during the hearing. Two lawyers representing the Dali’s owner ignored questions as they left the courthouse.

Lawrence B. Brennan, a longtime Admiralty attorney based in New Jersey, said these types of legal battles are not uncommon or even unprecedented.

“It’s going to be complicated for a while,” said Brennan, who previously worked for the Justice Department and is an adjunct law professor at Fordham University. “And I don’t think anything will be resolved in the coming weeks or months unless someone decides it’s in their best interest to pay it off.”

Brennan said it is important to complete depositions quickly to prevent the case from stalling.

“We don’t want to be talking about the same issues two, three or four years from now,” he said.

But he warned that it could be difficult to get witnesses to comply with such an agreement once they leave the US

“The promise to come back is hard to enforce,” Brennan said. “So if it is not enforced, the judge must decide what the consequences are. And usually that is a punishment for the party that broke the agreement.”

Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for the ship’s owner, said Tuesday evening that some crew members would leave, but he could not say when, and that others would stay to help with the investigation. He also said he was unsure when the ship would leave Baltimore for Norfolk, Virginia, where it will undergo extensive repairs.

The hulking container ship remained stuck among the wreckage of the fallen bridge for nearly two months as workers removed thousands upon thousands of tons of mangled steel and concrete from the bottom of the Patapsco River at the entrance to the Port of Baltimore.

The ship’s crew remained aboard even as explosives were detonated to break fallen bridge trusses and free the ship from a massive steel span that landed over the bow.

The ongoing civil lawsuit began with a petition from the ship’s owner and manager, two Singapore-based companies, seeking to limit their legal liability for the deadly disaster.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the ship suffered two power outages in the hours before it left the Port of Baltimore. In the moments before the bridge collapsed, the bridge again lost power and veered off course. The service is still investigating what caused the electrical faults.

The FBI also launched a criminal investigation.

According to emails in Tuesday’s lawsuits, the eight crew members who will return home have already been interviewed by Justice Department investigators, and the department has not objected to their departure. The crew members flew out of Baltimore “probably on or around” Thursday, an attorney for the ship’s owner and manager wrote.

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Brumfield reported from Silver Spring, Maryland. Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.

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