Last March, after the container ship Dali hit one of the piers of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the Patapsco River span to collapse and killing six members of a roadway maintenance crew filling potholes on the bridge, there was vague talk of electrical problems and a loss of steering control. But authorities noted that the enormous ship had passed recent inspections, including September 2023 in New York and several months earlier in Chile. For weeks, the focus has been on the possibility that a faulty electrical block, a piece of wiring that might only cost $10 or so, could have been the chief culprit. The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary investigation, released in May, even noted that the vessel had suffered an electrical blackout the previous day.

But what if the 947-foot-long container ship was far more dangerous or in much worse shape than initially disclosed? A civil lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore strongly suggests that was precisely the case, describing the Dali as an “abjectly unseaworthy vessel” staffed by an “ill-prepared crew” that had “cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure.” Is that just legal bluster from an agency seeking $100 million to help pay for cleanup costs (and perhaps far more in punitive damages)? Maybe, but the lawsuit also describes for the first time some rather harrowing details about conditions below deck.

Exhibit 1: The Dali had long suffered from excess vibrations, investigators now claim, and the Dali’s owner and operator “jury-rigged” anti-vibration devices that cracked over time and were then welded back together before cracking again. And here’s a detail that the casual observer may find especially chilling: The lawsuit notes that workers also “wedged a metal cargo hook between the transformer and a nearby steel beam, in a makeshift attempt to limit vibration.” That’s right. It appears they were just throwing whatever they had at hand at the problem. Meanwhile, the ship was carrying 4,700 shipping containers at the time of the accident. How casually do we take maritime safety? Oh, and here’s another gem: The vibration was allegedly so constant that it caused “cargo lashings above the engineering spaces to work loose.” How can anyone claim surprise under these circumstances?

Money is at the heart of this particular legal action. Justice officials are seeking payment from Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singapore-based companies that own and operate the Dali, for the “catastrophic harm” inflicted. The Port of Baltimore has endured considerable losses due to this disaster, and then there’s the matter of paying for a new bridge at a potential cost of $1.9 billion or more. State officials are pushing for 100% federal funding. One presumes that civil damages may eventually offset some of that cost to taxpayers. Meanwhile, the design process for the new bridge has started, thankfully, even as delayed and traffic-bogged travelers on the Baltimore Beltway, Interstates 95 and 895 continue to feel the inconvenience of the lost span.

One has to wonder whether this may lead to some richly deserved criminal prosecution of those who must have seen the danger but failed to take appropriate action. An unforeseen accident is one thing; wanton neglect is another. At some point, this is the equivalent of a tractor-trailer operator driving down the highway when he knows his brakes don’t work quite right and he might be unable to stop in an emergency. How many warning signs are necessary? And beyond that, can we be confident that enormous cargo ships like the Dali are being operated safely and overseen by authorities in this country and overseas?

These giant cargo ships (the Dali weighs 95,000 tons when empty) are difficult to maneuver under ideal conditions, let alone when they shake so severely that lashings won’t hold. Is the U.S. Coast Guard doing its job? How about the Federal Maritime Commission? Or the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency that is supposed to regulate sea transportation globally? While it may take years to rebuild the Key Bridge (the anticipated completion date is currently in 2028), it may take even longer to restore public confidence that there aren’t a lot more Dali-size ships out there ready to fail at a critical moment — and at who knows what cost.