Remarks as prepared for delivery.
Thank you, U.S. Attorney Hayes, for the work you and your office have put into investigating this matter with us.
Good morning. I’m Adam Gustafson, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department Environment and Natural Resources Division. We join the U.S. Attorney’s Office in prosecuting this important matter. The indictment alleges criminal conduct that led to the deaths of six Maryland residents, the destruction of the Key Bridge, the discharge of pollution into the Patapsco River, and the closure of the Port of Baltimore, causing billions of dollars worth of damage.
The catastrophic allision on March 26, 2024, occurred within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, at the western edge of the Bay. When the Dali crashed into the Key Bridge, massive pieces of the bridge fell into the Patapsco River, along with vehicles, cargo containers, and other debris; the crash also resulted in the discharge of oil into the water.
Following the laws for safe operation of commercial vessels is essential to doing business in our nation’s ports, especially the Port of Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay—our country’s largest estuary. We enforce these laws to protect the public from disasters like the one that brought us here today.
We allege that Synergy and its employees, including Karthik Nair, broke the law. The Dali twice lost power in the early hours on March 26, 2024. Without power, it couldn’t safely navigate through the bridge. The first power outage was likely caused by a loose wire. Although the Dali quickly restarted, we allege that the second outage prevented the Dali from being able to avoid the bridge. We allege that the second outage resulted from the Dali’s use of an unapproved flushing pump in the fuel oil supply system. That unapproved flushing pump was a problem because it did not automatically restart after the first outage. We allege Synergy knew about the improper use of the flushing pump—on the Dali and other Synergy vessels—nd willfully failed to notify the Coast Guard of this hazardous condition.
We allege that the possibility of such a catastrophic power failure should have been no surprise to Synergy. In fact, the Dali experienced two blackouts at Port the day before the allision and we allege that Synergy’s employees didn’t investigate or report those blackouts as required. We also allege that the defendants provided false documents and false statements to the NTSB during its investigation.
In the time since the crash, the initial economic fallout has continued to expand. The Key Bridge carried about 12 million vehicles annually — that’s about 23 vehicles every minute. Some of those vehicles are left without any efficient route, including trucks carrying hazardous materials that can’t use the tunnels under the harbor. The Port of Baltimore—one of the five busiest ports on the east coast—was completely closed. And it wasn’t fully reopened until about 11 weeks after the crash. In the meantime, critical container traffic into and out of the port ground to a halt. The human costs of this catastrophe have been borne every day by ordinary men and women and—most of all—by the families of the six workers who were killed.
I echo the gratitude expressed by U.S. Attorney Hayes to the first responders and our federal and state law enforcement partners, for their tireless efforts to clear the channel, investigate the allision, and prevent future disasters.
As U.S. Attorney Hayes noted, an indictment is only an accusation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty at a trial beyond a reasonable doubt.
Thank you.
