FBI agents have boarded vessel managed by company whose cargo ship collapsed Key Bridge

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News/AP

Updated on: September 21, 2024 / 11:54 AM EDT


Federal agents have boarded a vessel managed by the same company as a cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse, the FBI has confirmed to CBS News.

In statements Saturday, spokespeople for the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland confirmed that authorities have boarded the Maersk Saltoro. The ship is managed by Synergy Marine Group.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division and Coast Guard Investigative Services are present aboard the Maersk Saltoro conducting court authorized law enforcement activity," the FBI told CBS News in a statement. The agency said it was "unable to comment further."

In a lawsuit Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department has alleged that Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore, recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel that had a power outage moments before it crashed into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Six men who were doing work on the bridge died.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-agents-maersk-saltoro-dali-key-bridge-collapse/

[elleng]

1. 'recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems

on the vessel that had a power outage moments before it crashed into a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge'

[underpants]

2. This ship is REAL

[marble falls]

3. Once the Fed decides to bite they will not let go. They live for this. Plenty of glory, no gun play.

[moniss]

4. There's nothing more hinky

than the tangled web that is ocean going shipping. You end up with so many loose ends about who was involved and responsible.

[wolfie001]

6. Literally thousands of old, rickety tankers transporting that mf'er's oil (pootin)

each one is a potential hazardous ecological disaster. He's f6cking up the world on purpose.

[moniss]

8. Yes indeed some of those

tankers get so many entities into the mix that trying to ascertain true control becomes nearly impossible. Then when the spill happens or the collision they all scatter like rats usually leaving the sailors hung in limbo on the ship or in custody. Unfortunately there has been an increase of this sort of thing in the trucking industry in the US. A few years back a large carrier did this to their drivers right before the holidays. The drivers pulled in to truck stops to get fuel and found out their company fuel cards were shut off. They called in to the company only to be told the company had shut down and they were on their own. Hundreds and hundreds of drivers stranded around the country and the vast majority carried themselves professionally and completed their runs even while knowing they would not be paid. Huge number of drivers stranded around the country with no pay and many with no easy way home. When word got out many of us working for other companies gave rides, gave money, listened to their worries and did what we could.

Some people don't understand that someone would do that rather than walk away but professional drivers are mostly a different, and dying, breed. Our thinking goes like this: I said I would take this freight from here to there and do so professionally. That is what I am going to do to the best of my ability. I gave my word and my integrity is my core. If the company I work for screwed up that is not the fault of me, the shipper or the consignee and I will do what I said I would do. I will hold to my word and we will sort the BS later.

But that kind of dedication to a profession and way of life is disappearing more every day. The old ownership has mostly sold, retired or died. So now you have trucking leadership in companies who are nothing more than business school grads. This is an industry and a profession that, at it's best, you either have it deep inside you or you don't. That's one reason we say that there is a big difference between a professional driver and someone who just holds the steering wheel.

[wolfie001]

9. Yellow Corp, right?

I read about that owner who effed up big time. He didn't streamline his operations when they did a big merger and had two separate Corp headquarters or something like that. It's always the employees that pay for the scoundrels at the top. And also, thanks for your service! The pandemic was a nightmare for all of you folks. I worked for a Union grocer during those 2 years of hell. It went by in a blur. Any-hoo, cheers and be well!

[moniss]

11. It was further back but Yellow was no better.

I don't remember the name of the one I mentioned. Smaller than Yellow. A little known aspect of life as an over the road driver is that many of us go reported as "missing" when in fact we died in our sleep in the back of the truck. If you have folks to worry about you then they call the company/cops and they'll start checking truck stops along where they knew you were traveling etc. You find that a truck has been parked in the same spot for days.

Many times, for various reasons, there is not much money to pay for the body to go "home" or to get the truck home if it was owned by the driver. There are some charities that help. But it is a little known aspect of the life of trucking but it happens. So after a lifetime of making sure the freight got there through the snow, the hassles and the loneliness it ends that way.

When people see all those trucks parked they usually don't know that inside each one is a story. Every night there's some that are heartbroken because their marriage has died, some are anxious because the kids are going wrong because Mom or Dad is gone all the time in that truck, there are the ones feeling awful about missing school events for the kids because they're in that truck, there are the ones going broke and don't know what to do, there are the ones who were lawyers and doctors who couldn't deal with that life and want to get away, there are the ones with hearts so wounded for so long by every time they tried to be a lover or friend to somebody and so on and on the stories go. There's a lot going on behind those windshields.

[wolfie001]

13. So true! Every word

[love_katz]

14. I trained a lot of people who decided to get out of the trucking industry.

I worked as a driver and driver trainer for driving school busses. When I was still in the early part of my career as a trainer, I was puzzled about why people would leave a profession that paid a lot more than school bus driving did, so I asked them why they were doing that. They told me similar things like what you said: too much time away from their families resulting in marital problems and divorce; too many hours behind the wheel and employers who gipped them out of pay or outright ripped them off; laying on their backs with water from melting slush running down their spine while they struggled with chaining up multiple sets of dual tires; being attacked while sleeping when parked at truck stops or highway rest areas; not getting paid for layover time when the truck breaks down; health problems from too much fast food; impossible schedules particularly after computers were installed to time and track your movements ( I can vouch for the fact that the timing of computer plotted routing is way over optimistic); etc.

I didn't know or hear about the issues you mentioned about the driver dying while on the road, but an older woman who had helped train me to become a trainer had driven trucks for part of her life as a commercial driver told me that truck driving has a high death rate, for the many reasons that I have outlined.

Commercial driving is also a high stress profession. The amateur drivers that we have to share the road with don't have a clue about what we need in order to operate our big heavy machines safely, and the worst ones don't care and are stupid enough to pull maneuvers that put everyone at risk for serious injury and death.

I wish more people understood what it really costs to keep our civilization fed, warm and equipped with the goods and services that keep everything going.

As one of my former supervisors said, " Amateur drivers cause accidents, professional drivers prevent them. "

[moniss]

15. Amen.nt

[chowmama]

16. My dad went over the road when he was laid off from a corporate job

They laid off all the older workers before they would need to pay them a pension on retirement. He needed something, so he got a rig and training. Worked for several companies.

The biggest thing I remember is that each of them told him, in writing, to stick to the rules on speed limit and rest periods. However, if you did that, they didn't give you any runs. If you wanted to work, you needed to find a way to bend the rules of time/space and to keep double books.

When you crapped out from exhaustion, they pointed to the written rules and blamed you. After all, they told you not to do that.

Keep well away from big rigs. Most of them are not completely in control of themselves or their rigs. Medications to keep going may be involved; otherwise, it's straight sleep deprivation.

[love_katz]

17. Correct. Every word you've written is, sadly, too true.

I heard plenty about the need to keep double or even triple log books

For too long, making huge profits for the shareholders and paying ginormous salaries to CEO's has been allowed to hold the whip hand in this country. The results are abuse of the people who do the actual work and the crushing knowledge that safety rules and practices are only to be used to punish the workers when they finally collapse under the unfair pressure.

I didn't want to mention the multiple log books because I figured someone would think that I was trying to smear the drivers. I don't condone unsafe practices, but I am aware that most people don't behave like that unless they are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

[EastBayGuy]

5. Their just like the big rail companies

[Aussie105]

10. The ship that did in the Key Bridge

was obviously not in a fit state to move, but the owners probably ordered it to get out to sea anyway, and do running repairs once out in open waters.

Sitting still in harbour costs money, after all.

Compensation is wanted for the bridge repair and for the families of those who died on that night.

Seizing assets when compensation is not forthcoming is one way to respond.

But damn, imagine being so desperate for a job you are prepared to do midnight shifts patching road surface and lane markings - or whatever the deceased were engaged in on the bridge that night.
Surely their families are hurting both emotionally and financially.

[Stargazer99]

12. Capitalism-when are you going to learn? Reducing needed safety costs for profits and can kill

but who gives a damn it is not me...right? Doing the same thing over and over again-stupidity?
Or just money and power and let the other guy pay the price? Capitalism is the same as lords and kings with a different name to the system