The owner of the ship that toppled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge appears to be seeking to cap the amount of damages that the company can be forced to pay following the deadly crash.
The Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd. indicated it will file a “limitation of liability” action in federal court Monday, invoking a little-known statute used in maritime law.
The filing itself is not yet available, but a docket in U.S. District Court in Maryland showed the company has initiated an action involving limitation of liability, a key move that maritime lawyers saidwould be likely to take place soon after the disaster.
The tug boats could only be there as an escort in case of an emergency, meaning they’re not necessarily attached to the ship.
Leaving them out of the equation is a cost-saving practice.
The vessel was doing 8 knots. It would have been useless and dangerous according to that channel.
If tugs are required then the port should require them instead of relying on shipping companies to do this. You’ve repeated that it is a cost-saving measure but I’ve said twice now that it isn’t automatically helpful to have them. Further, it really is on the port if tugs should be needed to put that into the minimum requirements.