The families of those who died in the Baltimore bridge collapse in March have filed wrongful death claims in federal court.
Construction workers Alejandro Hernández Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, Carlos Daniel Hernández Estrella, Miguel Ángel Luna González and José Mynor López died when the container ship Dali smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge crumbled into the water below, killing the men and filling the shipping lanes at the Port of Baltimore with mountains of debris.
The claims, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, seek unspecified damages “far in excess of the value of the vessel,” court records show.
The U.S. Department of Justice also filed a suit against the owner of the Dali, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator Synergy Marine Private Ltd., alleging that the disaster was avoidable and caused by the Singaporean corporations’ negligence. The DOJ is seeking more than $100 million to cover costs related to reopening access to the port. Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that the state filed a claim against the companies on Tuesday, also seeking an as yet unspecified amount.
The owner and operator of the Dali wants to cap liability at $44 million.
Lives forever upended
“We went to the scene of the accident that day and waited at a gas station near the disaster by the water,” Carmen Castellon Quintana, the wife of Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, said at a news conference about the claims. “All I wanted at that moment was justice for him and his companions, who died due to negligence. I don’t want any wife to lose her husband the way I did. I don’t want any child to be left without their father because of a tragedy that could have been prevented.”
The claims paint loving pictures of the men, who left behind wives and children. Gonzalez and Quintana had been together for 14 years, and he helped her with a food truck, where she served Salvadoran dishes.
“They worked on their home together, loved watching soccer games together, and were devout churchgoers,” the claim said.
The claim filed by Gonzalez’s family offers a peek into their lives with him: a doting father who greeted his daughter with hugs and kisses, hourslong phone calls and heartfelt prayers. Claims filed by other families of the victims showcase similar everyday moments that ceased on March 26.
The claim filed by the family of Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera details how Cabrera came to America from Guatemala when he was 20. He sent money back home to his parents and was proud that he could afford to purchase his mother a refrigerator and pay for her medication.
“Dorlian’s dream was that he could obtain legal status and one day bring his parents to live with him in Baltimore,” the claim says. “When the Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Dorlian’s life — and those dreams — were lost forever.”