Road works inspector who survived the Baltimore bridge collapse to file a claim

It was just another night shift for Damon Davis, a road construction inspector overseeing repairs on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge — until the deck began to collapse beneath his feet.

He ran for his life and miraculously made it to safety moments before the bridge collapsed into the water below.

“You can visualize, as he comes forward, the bridge collapses behind him,” said Baltimore attorney Billy Murphy, whose firm is representing Davis in a liability case against the owner and manager of the Dali, the massive container ship which turned. course and crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns in March.

The lawyers held a press conference on Thursday to announce their upcoming application.

Six members of the road crew whose work Davis was inspecting that night died in the crash, and another narrowly escaped falling from the bridge. Their job that night was to fill holes in the bridge deck.

A last-minute call from the ship’s pilot allowed police officers to stop traffic on the bridge, but they did not have time to alert the road crew. The workers were on break when the disaster occurred. Most were sitting in their construction vehicles and had no warning of the impending collapse.

The man who survived the fall, Julio Cervantes Suarez, was able to manually roll down the window of his rapidly sinking truck and out into the cold water of the Patapsco River, where he clung to a piece of floating debris until he was rescued by first responders.

Davis, meanwhile, was walking back to his car when he realized what was happening. He ran to one end of the bridge and jumped to safety.

“His car went down the bridge and took a huge bounce,” said attorney Ron Richardson. “He kept running for his life.”

Davis is still struggling to overcome the trauma he experienced, his lawyers said. They said he was mourning the loss of his colleagues and processing the shock of his own near-death experience.

Davis plans to file a claim in the coming days against Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore. The companies filed a petition in court days after the collapse, seeking to limit their legal liability in what could become the costliest maritime accident case in history.

Several other parties have since filed countercomplaints in the case, arguing that the companies were negligent in allowing an improper vessel to leave the Port of Baltimore.

The most damning claim yet came on Wednesday, when the US Department of Justice accused Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine of recklessly cutting and ignoring known electrical problems on the Dali.

The ship experienced power outages near the bridge, causing it to lose direction and drift off course. The Justice Department’s lawsuit provides the most detailed account yet of the cascading series of failures that left the ship’s pilots and crew helpless in the face of impending disaster.

The ship, which was stuck amid the wreckage of the crash for months before it could be pulled out and resumed, left Norfolk, Va., on Thursday afternoon bound for China on its first international voyage since the March 26 disaster .

U.S. Coast Guard officials said they were maintaining a 500-yard (meter) safety zone around the ship, which began its journey led by three tugboats. Eventually, they will separate and Dali will sail under his own power. The voyage is expected to take 46 days, according to a maritime tracking website.

Davis’ attorneys said the government’s recent filing strengthens their case. They noted that the Justice Department is seeking punitive damages in addition to the $100 million in cleanup costs incurred in the collapse. The disaster halted most shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months as rescue crews worked to recover the bodies of victims and clear debris from the main shipping channel.

All six men who died were Latin American immigrants who came to the U.S. in search of better-paying jobs and opportunities. Lawyers for some of their families announced earlier this week an impending civil suit on their behalf. They also seek better workplace protections for immigrant workers who often end up in dangerous jobs.

Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.