Litigation claims from the recent Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse could run to “north of a billion dollars,” insurance industry professional John Miklus ’82 told CNN. “Litigation will run years,” he added.
Miklus, who is president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters (AIMU), was quoted in several media outlets following last week’s disaster in Baltimore, which likely claimed six lives after a container ship ran into the span, causing it to collapse.
He told the trade magazine Insurance Business America the incident “is likely to lead to legal wrangling and major claims activity, with reinsurers set to take a heavy hit.” There are “various components to the loss,” explained Miklus. “A big one is going to be rebuilding the bridge and all the loss of revenue and loss of tolls while that's taking place.” There’s also the salvage operation, which is set to be “huge and costly,” he said, as well as anticipated liability claims from the loss of life and significant supply chain implications.
Overall, said Miklus, the Baltimore bridge disaster has the potential to be on the same scale as the sinking of the COSTA CONCORDIA cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Italy in 2012. That event, in which thirty-two people died, drove a marine insurance loss of $1.5 billion, according to IBA. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this were similar,” said Miklus.
Miklus, who majored in government and economics at Bowdoin, has been president of the AIMU—a trade association that represents the interests of the US ocean marine insurance industry—since October 2013.
