Baltimore bridge collapse (2024)
The collision of the container ship Dali with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March 2024, one of the costliest marine losses in history, testing the shipowner's limitation of liability and the reinsurance of P&I clubs.
On March 26, 2024, the container ship Dali, having just left the port of Baltimore, suffered successive electrical propulsion failures and struck a pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed within seconds, killing six workers on the roadway. The port's main channel remained closed for several weeks. The loss combines almost every marine insurance line and several onshore ones: damage to the ship, its cargo and the bridge itself, wreck removal and channel clearance costs, liability to victims, business interruption for port businesses, and reconstruction costs for the State of Maryland, partly insured. Its settlement runs through the shipowner's liability, covered by its protection and indemnity club, then through the pooling and reinsurance mechanism of the International Group clubs, which share very large losses. The owner sought to benefit from the limitation of liability provided by an 1851 US law, based on the vessel's post-accident value, which the US authorities contest by invoking its knowledge of the electrical defects.
After the container ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge on 26 March 2024, the owner sought to limit its liability to about 43.7 million dollars, the value of the ship and freight after the accident, while estimates of the loss's total insured cost ran into billions of dollars and bridge reconstruction was estimated at several billion. The gap between these amounts sums up what is at stake in limitation.
Francis Scott Key Bridge, Dali, Baltimore bridge collapse
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